Realms of the Sky
by Eyereed
Summary: Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl crossover. Begins after Blood of Olympus and the Last Guardian. Rated T for violence only. The two worlds are in alternate dimensions, but are connected together by an unknown force, whose mysterious hands unravel a plot that will end in disaster. Unless… Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or AF; they belong to Rick Riordan and Eoin Colfer respectively.
1. Artemis Fowl Finds Something Out

**Have fun reading. This is just an idea I got. I can't say it's 100% authentic; more like 93%. I got a bit of ideas here and there, but otherwise, it's a new story. I'm not sure whether I'll continue it; it all depends on the reviews. Since I'm the writer, I don't know what the reader feels when reading the story, so I wish you'd review truthfully, and completely. Don't just say it's good: tell me why. Don't tell me it sucks: tell me why. I haven't read the Heroes of Olympus or Artemis Fowl series (except for the Last Guardian) in a while, and the Percy Jackson series I haven't touched for years, so there might be a little** **behavioural** **or factual errors, so it's up to you reviewers to correct them.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians franchise or the Artemis Fowl franchise.**

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 **Percy Jackson -**

Everybody was laughing; having fun. Even Mr. D was smiling at the Stolls' antics to pants everybody in the Demeter Cabin. Annabeth was happily researching on Laistrygorgons or Pastrygonions or whatever their names were. Nico, who usually slept in the day and assisted the harpies at night, was discussing Mythomagic strategies with his entranced Third Cohort friends.

But there was somebody who was not so willing to accept the fact that the war was over: me.

I've seen too much hopefulness in the past, all shattered with another blasted prophecy. Well, now the Oracle, Rachel, was having problems communing with the spirit of Delphi, which was fine with me, but I am as sure as Hades that some other, well, whatever comes after Titans and Giants (fairies?) will pop up and start killing me all over again.

Even so, I couldn't help getting infected by the euphoria of my surroundings. Everybody was so… _happy_.

 **Artemis Fowl II -**

'It's apparently all the rage with the folk these days', Butler had said, constantly helping me to _modernise_ , 'a good way to spend your time the first day after recovery.'

'Butler, it is a fact that I have been infected with conscience by Holly and… _mum_ ', I flinched; I had lost a bet to Mother, and the cost was to use that most informal, most infantile term of endearment to refer to Mother and 'dad' to Father. 'Nevertheless, I am not so ill as to waste my time with fictitious American novels.'

After a few useless arguments, and several complaints and unfair blackmail, I had consented to Butler's whim.

The suggestion in question was to read some book series in order to be connected to the modern world, which is a useless reason, with my international surveillance systems, some of which that had not even been _touched_ by Foaly's fairy scanners.

Nonetheless, I found the books quite fascinating. I had already finished reading _Percy Jackson and the Olympians_ within the day, and I had taken _The Lost Hero_ for some bedtime reading. The change was almost gratifying; although it felt strange, not to be predicting the actions of an egomaniacal fairy or to be conspiring against a rich businessman.

Of course, my brain did not stop whirring. After reading the _Lightning Thief_ and _The Sea of Monsters_ , I had understood the writing style of the author, and thereby predicted the stories of the books I had not yet read, with approximately 94.713% correct results.

After having read about a hundred pages of _The Lost Hero_ , I had speculated that Percy Jackson would appear in the next book (admittedly, that was an easy prediction), and that Piper's father would be mind-wiped in the end, preferably by a potion recovered from Medea's shop.

The books were comical, but I was not satisfied with the intellect of the characters. If it was me, Kronos would have been defeated two years earlier, before he was even resurrected, Gaea's return would have been predicted, and thereby prevented without any harm caused.

But then, it was a story, and everything should not be perfect; otherwise there won't be a plot. _I should know better than anybody, how perfect plans could come apart_ , I thought, smiling wryly in my bed, _it is sad that no one would write a story about my life._

I smiled at that frightening thought, and unforeseeably fell asleep.

 **Percy Jackson -**

Well, there it was.

I mean, Johnny Nicolas, the Athena nerd, only brought some books, but they were a sign for something to come.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be so pessimistic. Fine, I'll keep my conspiracy theories to myself.

Anyway, Johnny was a new guy who apparently liked reading. I think that was pretty obvious, looking at the tonnes of books he always carried.

So he was apparently reading some series called _Artemis Fowl_. Then the whole Athena cabin started reading it. Even Annabeth was distracted from her studies. Heck, even I was reading them (once they were translated to Ancient Greek, naturally).

This Artemis guy reminded me of the actual goddess Artemis, but the cool, calculating mind reminded me of Athena. There were so many other deities I could compare to him, except maybe not Ares. But hey, no-one cares about him (sorry about that, Frank).

Frank and Johnny had a millionaire job of translating the books to Latin or Ancient Greek (I'm not sure they got permission from the author).

'Percy', Annabeth said, interrupting my thoughts, 'you know, you remind me of Mulch.'

'Yeah?' I challenged. 'You know what you look like? You look like… umm… uh…'

Annabeth laughed.

'Well, that's because you can't even be compared to any of them!'

'Shush, Percy. I'm sure you didn't mean that. Capture-the-flag _does_ start in a few minutes' Annabeth casually walked away to the training arena.

I seriously regretted what I just said. I pulled out all my golden drachmas out of my pocket.

'Shoot' I murmured. That was not even a _tiny_ bit enough to bribe Chiron. I guess I'm still in the Blue team (at least our team has good taste). I bolted towards the weapons shop. The discounts should be still on; I should have enough money to buy myself some high-grade armour.

 **Connor Stoll -**

Some people never learn.

I mean, what sort of person would not have guessed the paper ball magic trick was just a _trick_ (as in one to _trick_ them into stealing their watches)? Especially from someone like me (I mean, I _am_ the best thief there ever is or ever will be apart from Dad — and probably that Artemis Fowl, but he doesn't even exist; still, role models don't always have to be real).

Really, the prices of those watches; I'd be able to buy Apollo's sun chariot off him; even Dad couldn't make that boast (not that I was going to; buy Apollo's chariot, that is).

The Romans had agreed to participate in Capture-the-flag, but they had only agreed because they seemingly couldn't bear to think of the unevenness of the numbers in each team. They divided themselves just to make sure it's fair for both teams. They'd taken one whole day dividing their folks to the Blue team or the Red Team. Otherwise, the games would've been played yesterday. Those Romans and their symmetry.

Anyway, I'd just about finished writing the 'k' in 'I'm a Control Freak' on Katie Gardner's back when the horn signifying the start of the games sounded.

Annabeth was talking about battle strategies, but I wasn't really listening. I and my brother were planning different things; confidential things (sorry about that).

I was on attack duty again. There was this sweet new weapon Dad had given me: a weapon Dad had found in one of those Indian Oceanic countries – an Etunu-Kadua. It was sort of like a cross between a whip and a sword. It had taken me the entire year to get it, once Dad had turned it into Celestial Bronze, but now I felt like I was unstoppable with it.

Travis also got one, but I swear I'm the better one at it. We ventured through the forest. We already knew where they hid their flag; Jason had flown over the camp and checked. Handy trick. They'd kept it in between the Poop Pile and the Pegasus Stables. Of course, nobody keeps it exactly _on_ the great Poop Pile (oh, shoot, Chiron's here; if Chiron asked, I said 'Zeus' Fist') because of Kamp _ê_.

We, along with a few other cabin-mates, had captured about half of the Demeter cabin and the whole series of Ceres demigods. We were just about near the flag, guarded by Percy, the Ares cabin, led by Clarisse, and Percy's Fifth Cohort guys (was that blood, or Kool-Aid?).

This was not good; Percy himself could single-handedly beat our whole cabin. I retreated to get some more people to charge in. It shouldn't be that hard. We had created a clear pathway to the enemy flag.

Then a blinding flash of light blasted us into the air. I thankfully landed in some flowery bush, right next to a very hard redwood tree. _Diarrageíis_ , I cursed. I was pretty sure it was one of the new traps the Aether half-bloods had invented. I knew we should have stolen the whole lot of them.

But no; even Percy and the other guards had been affected. The light slowly faded like an afterimage, and a sphere of light remained. This sphere spread out and flattened itself, looking sort of like an Iris message portal, only brighter, bigger, and weirder.

'Well,' I heard Percy say. 'There you go.'

 **Artemis Fowl II -**

It's not often that Trouble Kelp asks me for help. Once that happens, we are in dire conditions indeed. Fortunately, I had finished reading the whole 'Heroes of Olympus' series.

I had arrived immediately at the point of incidence, which happened to be just a mile off the Fowl Estate.

I was about to ask the company present – which included Holly, Commander Kelp, Corporal Grub, Foaly (that was surprising), and a few more LEP soldiers – what the problem was, but I then understood that that question would be redundant.

There was a huge circle of light which showed glimpses of order-less images, reminiscent of a portal. I ventured to a safe distance; or at least as much as Butler allowed me to.

'So?' Trouble asked. 'What is it?'

I was irritated. Surely he can't think that I could arrive at a correct hypothesis so suddenly (a mere glance), even with my level of ingenuity?

'Surely you can't think that I could arrive at a correct hypothesis so suddenly (a mere glance), even with my level of ingenuity?'

'D'Arvit', Trouble swore. "Isn't anyone smart enough to figure this out? Haven got a _ten minute_ power cut because of this thing!' he said, as if a ten minute power cut should be unthinkable.

'I just came here, Commander', I said. Even for Kelp, this was a whole new level of idiocy. 'I need to properly diagnose this object to identify it – for now I suspect it to be a blend of quantum and magic – and find out what sort of effect it would have to the surrounding environment.'

'Yeah, Trubs. Don't be so stupid,' Grub said.

This was quite satisfying.

'That's _Commander Kelp_ , Grub!' Trouble yelled.

'That's Corporal Kelp to you.'

Even more satisfying. Sadly, there were more pressing matters to be considered.

I picked up a rock. A Stone Age procedure, I know, but sometimes that is all that matters. And if I waited for the fairies to figure everything out, I would have to wait a few days. Fairies have no less political problems than humans do, even with their seeming high IQ. I threw it at the object.

The rock passed harmlessly through the sphere.

'What was that?' Holly seemed more surprised at my throwing skills than at the risk I had taken. I glowed with pride.

'An experiment. I apologise for the lack of warning, but if I had mentioned, it would have taken several aeons for us to implement an action. Since I am not governed by your Council, I am perfectly legitimate to perform whichever action I wish to take, and you are faultless, since you would first need to get the Council's permission before implementing any action against such a revolutionary, ingenious person as I.'

'Yes, yes, we know', Foaly said, then was temporarily paralysed by the effect of the words he had uttered.

'-But what was the point?' Grub completed Foaly's sentence, for once asking a pertinent question.

After I finished relishing Foaly's indirect compliment, I began elucidating. 'I discovered many things. The rock that I had thrown was not any normal rock. It was one of the crystallised remains of some LEP helmet that I believe some dwarf had illegally purchased'

'Mulch?' Trouble asked, clenching his fists.

Again, I was surprised by Trouble Kelp's idiocy. 'Don't be a fool, Commander. How could something crystallise into a rock within a year? It was probably one used five hundred years ago by some dwarf who came to a sticky end.'

'Oh.'

'Indeed, after a thorough scan around the Fowl Estate, I have discovered many magical or fairy objects, scattered everywhere; little presents from outlaws, runaways and Section Burdeh, which provided the base for Section Eight, founded by Nan Burdeh.

'Anyway, this rock still contained certain minerals that have a queer effect according to the surrounding temperature. Thereby I can conclude that this portal is only comprised of photons, not even slightly exuding heat. This could be a scientific miracle; a revolutionary solution to the energy crisis.'

'What about the images? Those bird-men, and those mediaeval romantics?' one of the LEP soldiers asked.

I looked closely. This was utterly impossible, but I involuntarily uttered 'Greek gods?'

'What?'

'I mean… those divine beings are almost akin to the gods the Ancient Greeks worshipped: there is Poseidon, and Zeus speaking with Jason, and some Greeks preparing for battle.'

'Hmm… you could be right', Holly said (how redundant; I was always right). And then: 'Who do you mean Jason?'

I did some quick thinking. 'Of course, I mean Jason the son of Zeus, leader of the Argonauts.'

'Hmm…' Foaly stroked his goatee, thinking. 'What makes you think he's Jason?'

'It was the first son of Zeus that came into my mind. It could have also been Perseus, Hercules or Dionysus.'

'Because he's wearing an orange shirt that says 'Camp Half-' something. And jeans. As far as I know, shirts and jeans didn't exist before the mediaeval ages.'

I was shocked. Then the sentient part of my mind took control of me. So, a practical joke that Butler had planned.

There's nothing to it, but to mention it. Hopefully, my fame as an intellectual being would stop me from being stared at like a fool.

'This would seem quite childish, I am sure, but Butler had compelled me to read a book series called 'Percy Jackson' and another called 'Heroes of Olympus'. The story is written on what life would have been if Greco-Roman Mythology existed in the modern world, with the gods interbreeding with modern humans, creating demigods, the protagonists of the story.

'There are two demigod camps: Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. It seems impossible, but these images seem to be a representation of that book series.'

I tried to get a logical answer for this, but the bemused stares were too painful to ignore. I glared at Butler for forcing me to read those books and making me look like an idiot.

'So, basically a creation of a scientific child prodigy who is an avid reader of Percy Jackson? Or of a childish smart scientist?'

I noted that not even Foaly had been able to create such an invention. So Foaly had admitted that there might be someone scientifically smarter than him other than me. I would've pointed this out, but something struck me.

'Someone, give me a torch.'

Holly quickly gave me her Neutrino, after putting it to the lowest possible setting.

'Not exactly what I had it mind, but it will do.'

I shot at the portal. A blast of light emitted out of the gun, and went _in_ the circle. The images dissipated, and were replaced by a single, larger image. It was one in a forest, which contained a few teenagers holding glowing weapons and armour, who seem to have fallen to the ground. The ray of light emitted from the Neutrino went into the image, and cast light upon one of the trees. I moved the torch around, and it lit up wherever I aimed it at.

Everybody present was flabbergasted. I, having seen things beyond normal perception for a long time, was able to adapt to the situation. The fairies, however, lived in that area humans considered beyond normal perception, and therefore never experienced something beyond their perception. But enough of this talk, which I suspect that you are not intelligent enough to perceive.

'It seems to be a portal which only teleports photons, the purest of particles.'

'Yes, well, I think that's going to change." Holly pointed, even though we were already looking.

The circle seemed to solidify, even though photons are incapable of becoming matter, unless antimatter was created as a by-product. The circle turned three dimensional, and then suddenly turned five-dimensional. I know, there is no such thing. I cannot explain it, genius as I am, but I was suddenly experiencing the world in _five_ dimensions. Unfortunately, before I could observe our new environment more, all of us were sucked into the object.

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 **So. Yeah. That's the beginning. Thanks for reading. Should I give it up, or is it good? Please review!**


	2. The Prophecy That Isn't A Prophecy

**Sorry for the late update, I had tournaments, and a camp, for which I had to train and plan unceasingly. I admit that the first chapter didn't uncover much, but I hope this chapter will help make amends. I was really trying to find enough time to write this chapter, but with all the work piled up on me, I couldn't help postponing. But then a few started to review, and I think that gave me the power to find enough time. I think that proves how affective reviews are, so please review on this one as well.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Kung Fu Panda, and more to the point, the Wuxi finger hold.**

 **Connor Stoll**

When I came to, there was some sort of portal visible. A light not quite different from a torch flashed, and almost blinded me again. Then the portal, sphere or whatchamacallit shrank, sort of _sucking_ itself like a hurricane, with the centre as the eye. Then, with a _boom_ , the hurricane thingy exploded, and dissipated in a shockwave, wuxi finger-hold style.

After the blinding light faded, I saw an eighteen-ish guy, and a gigantic man, both wearing a suit. I wondered what got them there, but I stopped wondering when I looked down. There were these redheaded little people, who looked normal enough, if it weren't for their fairy-like pointed ears. Now, don't think I'm turning Mr. D (aka insane), but they seemed to look like, well, like the Artemis Fowl characters. The big man was Butler; the suit guy was Artemis; the others were obviously fairies. Actually, this wasn't a moronic suggestion, seeing what I've been through.

Before the smart part of my brain took control, the Artemis-like guy spoke.

'It seems as if we are now in the Percy Jackson world.'

(Now, I'm cool with Percy, but c'mon! Has no one heard of the great Connor Stoll, the Thievish Houdini, or his apprentice — and elder brother — Travis Stoll?)

'I think, Butler, that we should proceed to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors, before they start belaboring us with their varieties of modern/medieval weaponry. The implementation of this deed would yield better results than gawping at them.'

 _Butler?_ I couldn't even think… How could it be?! I mean, it's not that impossible, but _how can it be_?!

 **Percy Jackson**

After my suspicions were confirmed (I was even right about the fairies!), the new guests were taken to the Big House, and all the head counselors were called as well, meaning that I had to go as well.

I was a little shocked to see the characters of a book come alive, but now I think I know how it was for Nico to see his Mythomagic characters come alive. I'd come to like Mulch actually; he reminded me so much about Leo. It was sad – and a little cruel – to see that the character representing Leo didn't appear.

'… and so I think it is sufficed to believe that some powerful force is behind the connection of our two universes, for there is no other satisfactory reason for the coincidence of each party reading novels about the other party.'

'What?' I asked, and not just because I wasn't listening the whole time.

Artemis threw an irritated look at me. 'While the books I read have warned me for your lack of concentration, it certainly does not make it any less irksome.'

'I'm not… wait, what exactly did the books say about me?'

Chiron cleared his throat. 'Yes, Artemis is correct to say that the coincidences are too great for us to have read about them and for them to have read about us; not to mention that the transaction happened right after both of us completed our task.

'So, any suggestion to who might have been behind this?'

A moment of silence grasped the atmosphere for a minute. Fortunately I understood the concept, even though I wasn't listening.

Artemis spoke, 'I think it is probably an entity common to both realms. Perhaps an ancient Irish god? Danu, maybe?'

'You know, he could probably be right!' Connor Stoll said, though I knew for a fact that he knew nothing about Danu since he skipped the factual bits in the books.

Rachel began, 'yeah, but–', but then she started to glow. It wasn't green like when she was possessed by the spirit of Delphi. She glowed blue. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes, her eyes glowed blue too. Usually, I liked the colour blue, but this was just eerie.

A supernova of blue light exploded from Rachel, and left us momentarily blinded. When I could see again, Rachel was levitating about six feet in the air in the center of the room, which was the table.

She opened her mouth.

No prophecy sprang out of her. Dark, cosmic energy burst out of her mouth, filling my head with weird words, which twisted and turned in my brains until it formed meaningful sentences:

 _To the sacred bloods, Folly rides,_  
 _Hope lies only in the tides;_  
 _Down below the void schemes_  
 _Trust is no longer in dreams;  
For salvage the father must return,  
Lest the sun loses its burn._

Rachel thudded down to the table. Will, always the doctor, quickly checked her pulse and did some medical stuff until Rachel regained consciousness.

Nobody spoke. I was seriously terrified to see a tinge of fear in the eyes of Butler, who has until now remained impassive, even when I accidentally summoned Mrs. O'Leary.

'What's happening?' Holly asked, speaking for the first time. 'What was that she was saying?'

'I think I am correct in saying that this was a prophecy,' Artemis said, proving again to be a know-it-all.

'No, duh, Captain Obvious', Clarisse said. 'Though this was the weirdest one I've seen yet. And not just the weird presentation – the words made practically no sense. I mean, usually, the other prophecies have a tinge of meaning; this one is just…' She made the sign for 'mind blown'.

'Truly', Chiron said, stroking his chin contemplatively. 'Rachel, what did you feel when you gave the prophecy?'

'It– it felt weird. It was definitely not the spirit of Delphi. It felt… powerful. The weirdest thing is, I remember the words. Probably because they aren't real words; it's like… a message given in a language using a sixth sense. Like, we didn't collect that information using sight, or hearing, or smell, or anything like that. It was like a whole new method of sensing things. It was… weird. I can still remember the… the 'words'; they're like imprinted in my brain now.'

'Yes; whichever entity was responsible for the prophecy wasn't the spirit of Delphi. It belonged to a very ancient and powerful being, possibly the one behind the dimensional rift.

'Whoever he is, he's trying to help us. I've seen many things, but this is beyond me. We need to seek godly advice for this one' Chiron said, for once his eyes tinged with uncertainty.

I would love to say that I would again be the hero, and figure out everything and solve the problem effortlessly and fearlessly. As it is, I was internally shaking in fear, and hoped that it didn't show on the outside.

 **Holly Short**

I have shot my commander with a paintball gun, seen a Mud Man take down a bull troll, had a gunfight with goblins, gone to the island of Demons, healed a clone, travelled through time, been kidnapped (twice), been enslaved against my will and helped resurrect a dead person, but nothing prepared me for this.

While the god the campers referred to as Mr. D arrived, I expanded the weirdness capacity in her brain to absorb all the new nuttiness (my gift of tongues confirm that it is a real word). I tried to remember all I knew about the Greco-Roman mythologies. Much of our culture had been created from the Greek civilisation, and vice versa. Even though the connection between Mud Man and the People had been cut off after the Battle of Taillte, the connection between the Greeks had remained strong, though indirect.

I have read the first book series back when I was trying to keep up with the eccentric human behaviour, and so knew what to expect. Still, the whole thing caught me by surprise. It was simply weird. Chiron was completely different from the centaurs from my dimension (is it truly _dimensions_ , or something else?), and caught me completely by surprise. It was more unnerving to have Foaly and Chiron stand side by side each other.

I'd got used to seeing centaurs in a Foaly-like way (annoying, smart, paranoid, cynical and 0.1% streetwise), and it felt downright _wrong_ to see Chiron, all wise, philosophical, tall (sorry about that, Foaly), and leader-like.

Also, my great-grandfather is Cupid, or Amor, so it got a little weird when I realised from Nico de Angelo who Cupid was in this reality.

Not to mention how weird it felt to be treated like some sort of celebrity, being read about by everybody.

'Mr. D has returned,' I heard a camper say. For some reason, she didn't seem happy about it.

 **I'm really sorry if the chapter was too short for y'all, I wanted to write a really long one but just don't have enough time. I might or might not add more to the chapter. I just don't want y'all to keep waiting, with all those flaming arrows poised at me. So, for the sake of curiosity at least, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.**


	3. Let's Talk Poetry!

**Hey, readers; I know the prophecy sounds completely weird and inexplicable, but trust me, that was on purpose. I would have postponed the chapter even more than usual just to keep you all thinking about the prophecy, but I'm not that mean, fortunately for you guys. The lateness of this chapter was completely** ** _not_** **on purpose, and I'm** ** _really_** **sorry for the late updates; I'm trying really hard to find time.**

 **Well, folks, that's enough chatter; here's the third chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own** ** _Game of Thrones_** **or** ** _Asterix_**

 **Connor Stoll -**

'I don't see what the problem is,' Mr. D said. 'Folly rides. Who's the most idiotic person here? That's right – Percy Jackson, the boy who had to get the help of the son of the sky god to save himself in the sea.'

'Hey, Mr. D, cut me some… wait, what did you say? Who told you?' Percy asked indignantly.

'Word travels fast.' Mr. D grinned mischievously.

Jason looked around for some to point at. Finding nobody, he laughed sheepishly. 'Ah. Uh, heh… yeah… well…'

Percy clenched his fists. 'We. Had. A. Deal.'

'Anyway,' Chiron said, 'now that we finally got godly help,' –he threw a glare at Mr. D, who shrank back into his chair (or maybe that was my imagination, - 'I believe that the prophecy will be uncovered in a very formal, impersonal, and efficient manner. Now, let us properly assemble, and _begin_.'

Artemis and Butler seemed impressed by Chiron's handling. Well, he is going to be much more impressed when I show my skills.

'Indeed. Now, since Dionysus has arrived, we should be able to unveil the poetics behind the prophecy, god of theatre as he is.'

If I weren't as masterful in trickery as I was, I would never have understood the powerful message that Artemis sent with those words. He didn't lay the flattery too thick by laying amateur words like 'certainly' into the mix, but didn't make it subtle enough to go unnoticed either. This meant that if Dionysus _didn't_ solve it, he was forever in shame. _Damn_ , that Fowl was good.

'Yes, well, it's easy… You see, well, let's forget that folly bit for a bit… I'm sure that's just folly… heh-heh' Dionysus grinned, and when nobody joined in, the smile disappeared. 'What, nobody? Okay, okay. So, _hope lies only in the tides_. That – duh – means that our old friend Percy has to go and show off to the world how great he is and the other rubbish, balderdash and nonsense.'

'Dionysus,' Chiron warned.

'Right. So… what the next line again?'

' _Down below, the void schemes_ ,' I said automatically; those words I don't think I'll forget.

Mr. D's pudgy red face lost all its color. 'Um, yes, that would mean…'

Mr. D suddenly got serious. He gripped the table and stood up. 'Look. You've been real great at the previous adventures, yadda yadda yadda, and so on and so forth, but you'd leave this to the gods. I need to confer with the Olympians. The pit is best left alone.'

With that portentous note, he dissipated into thin air.

Nobody spoke for a moment.

'The pit…' Annabeth choked.

"No,' Percy said, shaking his head like a washing machine on overcharge.

'Tartarus,' Artemis pronounced, the word sending a shiver across our spines.

I remembered the letter that popped on the sacrificial fires. It was beyond creepy. The shockwave that spread when Rachel read out the message… I don't want to go through it again.

We thought for a moment. I mean, we thought deep… it was like a pondering guild of philosophers.

No idea came to mind. We got nothing.

We were stumped.

 **Domovoi Butler –**

It isn't everyday you travel into alien dimensions, and even rarer to know it's practically your fault.

The book choice was perfectly random. I could have chosen anything. But I think my choice was the best one, since I don't know what would have happened if I chose Game of Thrones or Asterix.

If it weren't for Madame Ko's and Artemis' shock training programs, I think I would not have at all been able to _look_ sane. I might have even done a Foaly.

I shook my head and looked out of the window of the special cabin we world-travellers had been bestowed. Foaly was galloping, creating havoc everywhere. He was screaming something along the lines of 'tall centaurs' and 'no electronics whatsoever'.

I pitied him.

Artemis' sharp voice shook me out of my stupor.

'I think that it would be more time conserving to plan what to do next and think of the correct deciphering of the prophecy, rather than watch centaurs perform their daily morning jog.'

'"Think" of the correct deciphering? Isn't that your job?'

Artemis smiled. 'I am not Opal Koboi, Butler. I am not wavered by your flattery.'

'Your face seems to be at odds with your speech,' I said, looking at Artemis' self-satisfied smirk.

Artemis was quick on the uptake. 'Madame Ko would not be pleased, Butler.'

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Artemis' grin widened.

'Your debating skills have certainly not wavered, Artemis.'

I probably shouldn't have said that. But I was certainly impressed – a phenomenon that would not change no matter how long one spent with Artemis Fowl.

Even Trouble…

'Oi, Fowl! Get back to thinking! We haven't got all time here!'

…Some people are just a little subtle of showing it.

I didn't care. Artemis' mother told me that a little criticism will stop him from getting too big a head.

'Yes, you are right. I should start thinking, since, as Butler pointed out, thinking is my job, not yours.' Artemis said submissively.

'That's right, Mud Boy. Glad you understood.'

A few seconds later…

'Hey, wait a second! I… I…'

Smirking again, Artemis resorted to his meditative position. I signalled for everyone to remain silent, while I closed the rough window curtains in an attempt to cover up the sounds of Foaly's _morning jog_. I wondered whether someone would sedate him. Maybe Hypnos' kin.

I looked at Artemis, seeing how his eyes rapidly moved under his eyelids like REM. Years of staying with Artemis had helped me understand his telltale thinking signs, and I could tell that he was coming to a perfect plan.

A huge bang thudded the door, jolting everyone. Artemis had his eyes open, and his hands on the ground.

He wasn't pleased; the memory of his plan had faded. But Grub spoke for Artemis:

'I should make a complaint. The poor quality of these cabins is overwhelming. I mean, the _privacy_! We are distinguished guests to these lay Mud men! We should be treated with respect. I mean, not that I'm being overly hype about it, but this place is absolutely revolting! I should sue them! I mean, I don't mean to overreact, but it's true. Of course, I'm usually very cool about these things, but this is just not right! They should go to jail!'

'Shut up, Grub,' one of Grub's fellow corporals said.

I would have partaken in the conversation, but my primal instincts told me that something was wrong. While a sophisticated individual who can steal from a Swiss bank, can pickpocket a watch of a pickpocket, shoot a Beretta, and lives in a Manor, I always trust my primal intuition.

[edit: Artemis tells me that the above are not marks of sophisticated individuals. Hmph. Apart from shooting a Beretta, Artemis has done all of those things. Does that mean he's not sophisticated?]

[Oh, hello, Artemis. I was merely thinking of the proper colloquialisms and idioms I could use to compliment your character. Oh, they're the same thing? I didn't know! (Ruddy geniuses and their grammatical perfectionisms…)]

I looked out of the window. I couldn't see anything except for a bright blue light. I had no choice. I turned the safety off the Neutrino I grabbed from Grub and turned the door knob.

Once I'd opened the door knob, everything had been done.

 **Percy Jackson –**

We were sort of thinking about the prophecy all night. I say _sort of_ because we didn't do that much thinking. I think that Artemis would that for us.

But after Foaly had waked us up by destroying the pegasi stables, we were shaken from our contemplation.

Will was searching for the sedation guns, while the rest bribed the Hypnos cabin to trade some sleeping magic.

The good news? Rachel solved the problem for us. The bad news? Rachel solved the problem for us.

Rachel was standing right next to Hestia's fire, when the she did another levitating cliché, and spread her arms out as if greeting us.

She spoke in an alien voice, but like with Kampé, I could understand everything she was saying:

 _Stop your folly, and go the path. Follow the chains, or face my wrath._

 _I don't have time (he is destroyed by you); it's hard to rhyme, so accelerate you should do._

The bright light that had lit up the atmosphere got sucked into Rachel's chest, so that a glowing blue sphere seemed to illuminate Rachel's heart. Then something dark crept out of Rachel's chest, and spread around her body and solidified. She no longer looked like she was levitating. Her body limp, she seemed to be hanging from the black object that resembled glowing chains (can something black glow?).

She screamed in pain, and the chains exploded from her and thudded down to the ground, soon followed by Rachel.

We rushed to help Rachel, but she was completely fine. She opened her eyes, and said, 'I'm okay. Just… jarred, that's all.'

Even two minutes later, after we'd told the fairy folk and the Hypnos cabin what happened, we were still shocked. All except for Artemis, that is.

'I don't understand. What does rhyming have to do with acceleration? Also, the crude methods of rhyming are extremely novice. Rhyming is not hard at all, given the extensive vocabulary of the English language and the common assonances. Although of course, it seems to be so to the 'poet', with him using the most amateur methods to make it so his chosen rhyming word appears at the end. More to the point, though, is actually the completely arrhythmic syllables, which makes the _poem_ in truth just a crude, primitive speech that seems to only rhyme by chance.'

I think Artemis helped save the whole world by saying those words, because those words jarred us into action.

'Shut up, nerd,' Clarisse said.

'Yeah, stop showing off.'

'It's just that people have more important things to do than spout some English stuff.'

'You're _speaking_ English, idiot!'

'I think Artemis is pretty cool.' Connor said.

'Hey, Arty, you got yourself a fan girl.' Holly taunted.

'What were we talking about again?'

'Hey! I'm _not_ a fan girl!'

'Ha ha.'

'Your face didn't look so jubilant when you caught – ahem – 'accidentally' coming out of the Aphrodite cabin, Katie.'

'Oooh!'

'What? That's a lie!'

'What does jubilant mean?'

'Classic Mud Men,' a fairy soldier whispered to another.

'Hey!'

'Isso é inútil.' Paolo said.

'This is useless.'

'Foi o que eu disse!'

'Shut up.'

'Peace, campers. We have matters to discuss,' Chiron said, and the Big House fell silent.

'Yeah, so, we're supposed to follow those chains, right?' Connor pointed at the writhing black chains that seemed to resemble a black mamba, albeit a mamba with a black aura like it came out of Tartarus.

The chains froze, and seemed to look at us with its nonexistent eyes. Then it started its pogo-dance again. I didn't want to look, but I couldn't take my eyes off it either.

'I know it's strange,' Chiron began. 'But there's one concept I understand, and I think you do too: it's a quest.

'So the main question: who is going for the quest? I think it is obvious that Percy should go, having been mentioned in the prophecy and having tangled with Tartarus before. That leaves two more persons to go for the quest.'

'Actually, Chiron, I think it would be better if we choose a number sacred to Irish mythology, not Greek.' Artemis interjected.

Grover stroked his goatee thoughtfully. 'So which number do you say we should use?'

'I propose the number five, representing all five directions: North, South, East, West and centre. The fifth Ogham letter, 'E', represents the white poplar, or the tree of life. There are five fingers in the hand, five elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether), five musical tones, and five senses.'

'It's also the number with which you were obsessed with while being in the clutches of the Atlantis Complex.' Butler looked at Artemis, frowning.

'Four,' Artemis replied. 'Four, four, four.'

'The 'fours' is strong in him,' Clarisse snickered.

'Hey, that's my line!' Foaly objected.

Chiron gritted his teeth. He was plainly thinking about the quest we had with the Hunters. Five had gone, and three had come back.

'I know what you are thinking about; it is _The Titan's Curse_ , am I right?' Artemis asked. 'Yes, I understand that it causes you some doubt, and you loath to do as I say, but remember, in the _Battle of the Labyrinth_ , you sent four, and all four came back. Actually, there were five, including Quintus, or Daedalus, to be exact.'

'But Quintus died!'

'Quintus wasn't Irish,' Artemis replied calmly. 'Trust me on this; it is not that hard to do. Five is the only odd untouchable number, and likewise, it is untouchable by any other number you propose.'

Chiron thought for five seconds, and then said, 'alright. I will trust you on this situation, because of the strange circumstances that bring us here.

'Which brings us to the old question: who is going?'

'I shall, indubitably. Along with Butler, as he will not let me go otherwise.'

Connor stood up. 'I'm going.'

A few eyebrows were raised. Even I was a little surprised. I mean, Connor sort of served as the comedy between the scenes. He hasn't gone on a single quest, and never showed that he wanted to.

'What? I know, I know, I'm sorry. I know you'll miss me loads, but bear with me, alright? Your hero will probably come back with even more muscles than before!'

The skepticism turned to laughter as everybody pushed Connor down and wrestled him, asking him to show his muscles.

After the laughter ended, Chiron asked, 'And the fifth camper?'

'Not really a camper,' Holly said. 'But I'm going.'

I looked at Annabeth, who'd just been about to stand up. She looked guiltily at me, and I silently told her that it was okay.

'Then it's settled!' Chiron said, with the air of one trying to get everything over with. 'You will leave tomorrow at dawn.'

We knew ourselves to be dismissed, and walked away, with some wondering 'at dawn? Really? _So_ cliché…'

 **Connor Stoll**

Don't ask me why I stood up. I don't know.

I tried to sleep, but I couldn't. And it wasn't because Travis was snoring. (That's normal in the Hermes cabin.)

I was wondering all day what to do. Should I pack my first-aid kit and my spare clothes? Are we going to cook? Should I take some burgers? No, I didn't see Percy do any of those things. Maybe he did all that in his cabin, and stole some food from the magical dining tables?

I crammed everything that came to my mind as necessary into my backpack, including my _Artemis Fowl_ book; the first one of the series. I kept my belt-sword – aka my etunu-kadua – by my side, so it would be the first thing I'd see when I wake up. It would be a little embarrassing if I went without my sword.

I got a sudden urge to do something I shouldn't do. Basically, I wanted to do something normal. I picked up my sword in case the harpies got me, and a Zeus Mythomagic card in case Nico got me, and went outside.

The stars were nearly invisible, but I didn't come for the stars. Actually, I don't know why I came out.

I walked towards the Arts & Crafts building. I had no reason. I just felt like it.

'You are as inquisitive and rule-breaking as I am. You make Papa proud.'

I turned around. Hermes was standing next to the Arts & Crafts building, turning an origami tortoise around idly.

'Why are you here, dad?' I asked Hermes.

'Oh, not much. I hear you are going on your first quest.'

'Um, yeah, but…'

'I thought I'd advise you on the potential dangers you will face. I'm not really supposed to be here, with Zeus locking up all the gods he can in Olympus. But then, even you aren't supposed to be here, are you? I suppose it's a trait we share.'

'Right, so…'

'Listen. I don't know who this secret helper of yours is, but Gaea is a pushover compared to Tartarus. I know that that sounds wrong, but believe me; Gaea did _not_ rise in the first Gigantomachy on her own; she would never have done it without Tartarus. And I'm not just talking about the giants. We all joined to defeat Gaea in battle, but we never dared to meet the pit.'

'You are the best at pep talk,' I said sarcastically.

'Sarcasm: another trait we share. But please, I'm serious this time. Your participation in the camp was no random occurrence. For eternity, the Hermes cabin had just been the colors in the background. Those who dared stand up went wrong. Luke…' Hermes gazed into the night sky, his eyes glistening. He shook his head and looked at me straight in the eye. 'It's time you stood up. Connor, I have faith in you.'

People complain that their godly parents almost never contact them, but after Kronos was defeated, I've been in touch with Hermes even in the Giant war. I met him at least once a week, but this was the first time he'd ever complimented like that. His features were no longer mischievous, they were sad, and – it might have been my imagination – a glint of pride.

'I don't have any magic weapons or special powers to bestow on you, though I will try to indirectly help you in your quest. But brace yourself; you probably won't like this, but there is going to be something huge, of the likes you've never seen before. The fall of Kronos? And Gaea? I suspect that they were only fragments of Tartarus' plan.

'I am late; father will sense that part of my omnipresence is not in Olympus. You better get some sleep.'

Hermes started to glow as he transformed into his divine form, and I averted my eyes. When I looked again, he wasn't there.

I blindly walked back into the Hermes cabin. I tiptoed past my snoring kin and got into my sleeping bag. I instantly fell asleep.

 **I know; I know. I just devoted 3000+ words for a chapter in which nothing interesting happened, but next chapter, a bit of action will come up. This is my second book – first book, technically, since I only wrote one chapter of my other book – so cut me some slack.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter anyhow. It's just the calm before the storm, and the storm's going to happen real soon.**


	4. A Trip to The Collosseum

**Thanks for the reviews! I'm really sorry about the late update this time, since I have no excuse; I was doing other things on my computer and almost forgot about the chapter. Then I got a review from Rocker On, and then I remembered! So I guess that proves that reviews really are a help.**

 **Disclaimer: this chapter does not mean to promote or demote any shop or commercial company of any kind that coincidentally has the name of 'Dragon Wings New York', or any food mentioned.**

 **Percy Jackson**

We trudged down the pavement, following the chains, which the mortals seemed to think was some pet dog of ours.

We'd left camp at five thirty, earlier than expected, because the chains seemed to have woken up a little too early.

I looked at Connor, checking how he was doing on his first quest. But that wasn't really fair, seeing that he had led the Hermes cabin in both the second Titan war and the second Giant war.

'Titanomachy and Gigantomachy would be more appropriate terms, I think you'd find,' Artemis said, reading my thoughts.

'Gah!' I exclaimed, agitated. 'When did you get here?'

Artemis raised an eyebrow. 'Since we adjourned, I was always here.'

'Right.' Artemis was starting to act like Nico. Artemis had no shadow powers (actually, I'm not sure), but he just _appeared_ , like a bolt from the blue.

Awesome. I'm using Zeus similes.

The chains shuddered to a stop and rattled, halting my train of thought. I realized that I wasn't looking at my surroundings, but was simply staring at the chains.

I looked up to my right. Naturally, it was a shop. With English letters.

Somehow, though, I managed to discern the letters.

NEW YORK 'DRAGON' WINGS

 _Wings?_ I thought, my stomach rumbling.

I blinked as the words misted over and rearranged themselves in Ancient Greek.

NEW YORK DRACANAE WING

'Dracanae Wing? I didn't know the monsters were so organized.'

'Yeah, that's just weird,' Connor said, looking up at the colorful board.

'What? I don't understand,' Artemis said, confused. 'I expect that by 'wing' they meant Buffalo chicken wings, which I know is a delicacy in America. I thought 'Dragon' to be a just a commercial name.

'I think that your dyslexia is making you see things.'

It clicked to me that Artemis and Butler are blinded by the Mist.

'Artemis, use the spray.' I instructed.

Annabeth, being smart, had realized that that Artemis and the others weren't impervious to the Mist like we were (and even we get tricked). She gave us a anit-Mist spray to us, but didn't tell us where she got it from.

Artemis took out a small can-like object and squeezed it spraying vapor on his face. He seemed unperturbed by the spray, even though they hit him right in the eye. After everyone had sprayed themselves, they stared at the board.

'I can't read Greek,' Butler murmured.

Artemis looked irritated, but smug at the same time. 'I told you to listen to that course.' He told Butler what it meant.

I didn't want to say it, but someone had to.

'I guess we'd better go in.'

 **Holly Short**

Even I would be smarter than to immediately barge into enemy headquarters just as we saw it.

But since Percy and the others were already going in, I followed, my hand resting on my holster.

I realized that we'd been walking for around two hours. I looked at Artemis. He seemed strangely invigorated, and wasn't showing any indication of tiredness. I took that as a good sign.

It was a good quality restaurant, and a few Mud People families were actually sitting down and eating, with no monsters killing them even a little bit.

Connor sat down on a table. 'So, who likes Pepsi? Shall I ask for hot sauce?'

Butler raised his eyebrows. I understood what he must be feeling. One obnoxious boy purposefully running into trouble was hectic enough; three was going to give him a heart attack.

But I understood their tactics. The Cat Technique. Act like nothing's wrong, while perfectly poised to strike. We could act like innocent Mud People with no idea of the monsters, while being able to act within a millisecond if something went wrong.

I sat down. Connor pretended to check the menu, while Percy was _actually_ reading the menu, while Butler was looking left and right, waiting for something to happen.

I myself looked around at my surroundings. I saw a green dracaena that seemed to have two serpent tails for legs slither towards a table with a menu on her hand. I was surprised that the 'mortals' (as the demigods called them) were so blinded to what was happening around them.

A sudden _crack_ disturbed my thoughts. We jerked our heads towards the sound.

We'd forgotten about the chains.

The chains were starting to jump again. After a few seconds, it stopped, and started circling our table. I tried not to be unnerved by that, but like each one of us, I failed.

I slowly dragged my eyes away from the chains and towards the cashier. The dracaenae were looking at the chains with apprehension, and I realised with dread that the monsters could see the chains.

The dracaena at the counter narrowed her eyes into slits. 'I'm sorry, customers, but we have a strict 'No Pets' policy. I advise you to keep your… 'dog' outside.'

The chains stopped moving, and then slowly pointed its end at the dracaena.

Suddenly, all the mortals stood up and started to leave, their half-eaten food forgotten and left behind.

The number of dracaenae started to increase as the mortals left, and suddenly the mortals seemed to have been replaced by the dracaenea.

'How did you find us _sss_?' The counter dracaena – who seemed to be the leader – asked. 'Our _ss_ spelling mistake was _s_ _sss_ -sure to put every demigod or god off.'

'Spelling mistake?' Artemis asked, raising his eyebrow.

She pointed at the sign. It didn't really say 'NEW YORK DRACAENAE WING; it said 'NEW YORK DRACEANAE WING'.

'Oh,' I nodded, wondering about the dracaenae's average IQ. 'You thought we would not have thought that it was your New York Headquarters if you switched the 'a' and the 'e'.'

'Exactly.'

Percy looked bemused. 'So… that's not how it's spelt?'

'Enough!' The dracaena snarled. 'Sisters, attack!'

The dracaenae pulled out weapons from seemingly nowhere and snarled. Seeing no alternative, the door too far away, the demigods unsheathed their swords, and Butler and I toggled the safety catch off our guns.

 **Artemis Fowl**

The dracaenae snorted at my friends' attempts at battle. They charged.

Percy dropped down and slid through the dracaenae, hacking at their legs. Holly and Butler – whose Sig Sauer's magazine glowed with all the newly inserted Celestial bronze ammunition – shot down any dracaena that got too close. Connor Stoll was slashing with a weapon that was a blend of a sword and a whip. I recognised it as an urumi, and due to its number of blades, I identified it as the Etunu-Kadua variant.

Me? I am an intellectual prodigy, and am above the violent acts akin to mindless gladiators. I chuckled at the irony of my words, but my smile died while I looked at the battlefield.

The dracaenae were proving themselves to be easy opponents, but I understood that the sheer number of dracaecae would soon overwhelm us.

There are many times I wish I had punched that punching bag that Butler had hung in the gym. This was one of those times.

I mentally slapped myself for standing still the whole time. I cringed; the mental hands of an intellectual such as I were much stronger than my physical ones.

My mind whirred in search for the possible choices I could make in order to win this battle.

Finding none, I had to resort to mediaeval methods. I grabbed a sword of a fallen opponent and threw it at a dracaena. Obviously, I did not mean to sword fight with seasoned enemies. That would be suicidal. _Not that my aiming skills are any better_ , I mused, looking at the sword hit the Connor's sword, and deflected off, coincidentally managing to jab the dracaena I was aiming at in the back.

I meant to do that.

I resorted to throwing enemy swords, trying not to let my companions see my antics.

I was surprised to see that we were actually winning. The dracaenae were too close for ranged attacks, and so I sparred with a dracaena, trying to defend myself while scanning open areas for attacking. I lunged, but the dracaena sidestepped and slashed at my neck. My acute eyes caught the move quickly, but my legs were not as capable. Right as the weapon was about to behead me, Butler's SIG Sauer P229, Celestial bronze making the m shot the dracaena clean in the temple.

The dracaena numbers quickly decimated, until there were only around ten left, and I started to get hopeful.

Of course, that was the cue for things to go downhill.

The backdoor of the store blew apart, thwacking Percy down, and a battalion of dracaenae entered, eradicating any hopes of victory.

We were already tired stiff defeating the dracaenae. To make matters worse, Connor and Holly slipped in the monster dust.

Butler roared, trying to scare the dracaenae off until he could recover. The dracaenae flinched, but quickly convalesced and charged in. They bound all of us with Celestial bronze chains, and dragged us along to the backdoor.

 _Chains?_ I thought, and then remembered. I surveyed the room, but my sharp eyes could not find the chains anywhere.

I decided to worry about that later. I inspected my moving surroundings. We were being carried across a dark corridor, with nothing interesting. But around a minute later, we entered a huge hall filled with a variety of phenomena.

I squinted in the brightness, and after my eyes asserted, they were greeted with what seemed like a cave thronged with stalactites and stalagmites, only made with pure jade.

'Yes _ss_ ,' the dracaena standing beside me said, seeing me gaze at the hall. 'Beautiful, isn't it? Our headquarters are mightier than your puny camp. We might not have the blessing of a god, but our base holds many secrets, and it _is_ a secret. Until you came along, that is.' She threw a dirty look at me. 'Now you are going to end up in the Queen's dinner.'

 _Queen?_ I thought. I realised that if the dracaenae were organised enough to have a moderately sophisticated headquarters, it was perfectly possible that the monsters had a monarchy system.

Several dracaenae were moving here and there. A few stared at us, and looked at us in glee, like we just made their lives better. There were several entrances connected to the hall, including the one we came in, but none as engaging and stylish as the one we were about to walk into.

The door was decorated with a wavy golden outline, and the keyhole of the door was elegantly embellished, a silver and golden pentagon with a painting of two serpents entwined. Before I could gaze my eyes upon it and find more detail, the doors opened.

 **Connor Stoll**

At first I thought she sitting on some jade chair, but as we were forced forward, I realized that her throne was made of stacked human skulls, crudely painted green. It didn't matter if it were demigod or mortal.

Flames burning white hot smoldered within me. With my carefree, laidback, innocent (heh) nature, I don't look like I'd have any tragic background. But almost nobody actually _knows_ about me. Like dad said, I recalled sadly, we are just the colors of the background.

I reminisced back to the day. No, I don't remember the exact day; I just remember it as 'the day'. It was before I knew about Camp Half-Blood.

I was trudging through a forest along with Travis. We had no Celestial bronze weapons, and wielded a butter knife, a hammer and a pistol I'd managed to steal from some random guy.

We'd managed to get a good haul from vendors in the roads, but we hadn't been in the roads then. We were attracted by a green light that we idiotically thought was a sign from Hermes. We were desperate, and mom only had a few minutes to tell us everything.

I… can't go further. There was absolute mayhem; a colony of hellhounds and dracaenae, attacking from all 360 sides. We hided the best we could. But that wasn't the worst part. The reason the monsters didn't catch up with us was because they frequently stopped for snacks. We had to be still, and tried not to watch the innocent mortals, but our eyes were drawn to it. I think that's when I discovered and honed my pranking skills, although those days I called them artifices, traps, ambushes and snares. After that day, I could never handle injustice to innocents.

Coming back to the present reality, I realized that the queen was speaking. Percy didn't look pleased.

'Percy Jackson. You killed many of my sisters _ss_. If not for you, Kronos would have risen, bringing the dawn of a new age; a _better_ one. But your Chiron's bow couldn't keep me down for long. I have risen, and will bring a new era for the dracaenae.'

'Queen Sess,' I said, realizing it was the dracaena queen Chiron had shot down in the second Titan war, in the Empire State Building siege.

'You are a very much sought after group, you know. How lucky I am that _I_ was the one to catch you.' She said, like she was the one who caught us, and not her servants. The dracaenae who brought us seemed unhappy too. Oblivious, she continued, 'of course, before we feast on you, you'd have to please us just a little bit. I find that meat tastes better after a little glucose has run into the arteries.'

I struggled against the chains, but it was no use. The dracaenae just laughed at my efforts.

'Ha ha. Don't even think about it. Those chains are Celestial bronze, and apparently, Celestial bronze works quite the same way for annoying demigods as it does to poor old us. And speaking of chains…' the Queen Sess narrowed her eyes. 'My sisters tell me of glowing black chains in your vicinity.

'What was that? You will tell me now.'

I glanced at Artemis. He silently gestured _no_ with his eyes. 'What?'

'Of course, you won't tell me now. I didn't expect your brave souls to betray your friends _sss_ so easily. No, that will begin when you visit my torture chamber.

'But enough talk! Let's _ss_ have a little entertainment!'

The dracaenae grinned and cheered.

I would've cheered too, but I had a _small_ doubt that we were part of the entertainment.

'I have never liked you demigods _ss_. I've been living since before Dionysus was even deified, but never have I ever seen a good demigod. Even Luke and Ethan betrayed us in the end. Now you will pay for all the wrongdoings of all of your kind.'

'And why would be agree?' Percy challenged, trying to surreptitiously dig out Riptide from his pockets.

'Ha ha! You know, even though I hate you, you demigods can be _ss_ so _funny_ sometimes _s_!' Queen Sess chuckled. 'I mean, the way you speak like you even have a choice! But I know business; being a queen myself!

She leaned closer. 'Pass _ss_ this test, and I _might_ release you. But fail… and your souls will be extinguished forever.'

She cackled, and the laugh resonated across the room, lengthened by the joining of the dracaenae.

'I don't like this,' Percy murmured. 'She's basically making gladiators out of us. No duh, she won't free us. We should use that time to escape.'

' _She_ has ears _ss_ , Perseus _s_ Jackson.' The queen's voice turned icy cold. 'Take me and these miserable creatures to the arena!'

She clapped her hands together once, and the dracaenae who'd caught us grabbed us by the chains or by the scruffs of our necks and dragged us out of the room. I tried to stand up, because it was _really_ a pain to be dragged around, and my butt was getting real sore. My antics helped a bit, but not much.

Meanwhile the other dracaenae rushed frantically and brought a golden and emerald palanquin, and Queen Sess placed herself on it. She was carried carefully and efficiently, giving herself maximum comfort, with minimum to no bumps at all. This only added fuel to my burning fire, and I clenched my fists, momentarily having the crazy thought that I could punch through those chains and beating everyone up.

I tripped and fell down on my butt. I cursed myself. I'd be lucky if I could get out of plastic chains. I rethought: actually, there are some new plastics created that are actually quite hard, so maybe that sentence wasn't really insulting.

I stopped thinking and saw that we were in a type of underground amphitheatre. We were shoved into a cage in the edge of the circular arena. Dracaenae were already fighting to get to the best seats, like it was a movie or something.

Queen Sess strode delicately to a higher positioned seat, decorated with mosaics of snakes and dead warriors. She clicked her fingers, and a gate opened, and several dracaenae appeared, dragged a huge cage containing a very ugly man.

He was around seven feet tall, and sported a shaggy mane of dark brown hair. He wore nothing but a loincloth, but his arms held two heavy broadswords that glowed gold, which reflected off his man-hair, giving a very gross look to his already gross stature. He had no armor on him, but I suspected that his abs and biceps were more effective than armor, looking through his hairy skin at the bulging muscles that seemed to almost blow out of his skin.

He let out a yell of exultation, and when he saw us, he stopped and grinned, showing off broken yellow teeth, and a bad breath that almost made me hurl. An unpleasant feeling rose from my stomach to my throat, and I swallowed the rising bile, trying not to retch.

'Ah-ha!' He cried. 'I see you bring me a few more challengers, queen of snakes!'

'Indeed, Cercyon,' queen Sess said suavely, like talking to a toddler. An insane, ripped toddler, that is. 'Here you see my, er, friend Cercyon, once king Cercyon of Eleusis _ss_. He was recently raised back from Erebus during the giant war.'

'I know about him.' Artemis said. 'He was a demented show off, and his reign was full of terror. He challenged passers-by to fights, and didn't care whether they agreed or not. Eventually Theseus came along and killed him, and took the throne and started the sport of wrestling.'

'Theseus! Argh! Puny fool! I hate him! I kill him if he not dead! I don't do wrestling any more. Nice queen give _these_ to me!' He grinned again, holding up his swords.

'Yes _ss_ ,' queen Sess said, cackling. 'Now, for my first challenge: a duel! Who dares challenge our champion? No one? Well, sadly, you have no choice _ss_. Since nobody stands up, I think I should choose one myself.'

I didn't think I'd like this. But my shackles seemed tighter than ever.

She eyed Percy maliciously. 'You have killed a number of my sisters in the war, Perseus _ss_. Even now you came to our headquarters, and attack my sisters. And you had an unfair advantage in the war. You had the blessing of the Styx, and you attack my dracaenae from behind. You coward! I should kill you where you stand, but I have something much worse in store for you. Did you know that Cercyon was also a son of Poseidon? It seems fitting, does it not?

'My kingdom was flourishing, spread _across_ the globe, and ruling the mortals and the lesser monsters. But then you and your camp came along and decimated my empire. You killed thousands of my people, but I can only kill you once. So you can expect your death to be quite nice and slow.

'I don't plan to send you off to duel Cercyon here. No, I know how your mind works. I had many to know from during my stay at Tartarus! I choose _him_ to duel my champion.'

She pointed a gnarled, sharp finger at us. I looked at whom she was pointed to: Artemis.

We all gaped at Artemis, Artemis included. Cercyon let a bellow of laughter, and Queen Sess just smiled.

 **No, what? Artemis Fowl? Fighting a sumo-wrestler? This is going to be interesting. What will happen?**

 **Okay, enough trash talking. I know I said the previous chapter was the calm before the storm, and yet the action seems tantalizingly away from reach. I had to divide the chapter into two chapters due to the length and the cliff-hanger techniques. Sorry, guys! I will try to release the next chapter soon!**


	5. Cercyon!

**I'm sorry for not being able to update sooner. I'd seriously meant to update within a week, and I'd written around 2000 words already within four days, but then everything rushed in and I had no time for the finishing touches or to publish it.**

 **Don't expect a new chapter any time soon. I'll have exams, and won't be able to update for around a month. Till then, I hope this chapter will keep you happy. I'd closed up as much cliff hangers as I could, but at least now you can spend time thinking about what would happen next. PM me those predictions, or you can write them in your reviews; I've already made up to the next few chapters, your predictions won't spoil the story.**

 **Artemis Fowl –**

I wasn't expecting that.

Tell me to win a chess match against a computer; or locate a runaway; or steal a painting that hasn't been seen for centuries. I'd do those with ease. But fight a muscled, man-mountain wielding two wicked blades that have half the width of the wielder itself? No.

After my last misadventure, I had learnt to exercise both body and brain. I'd learned that, after all the physical trials and challenges thrown my way, having the intellect equalling double of the intelligence of all of Ireland wasn't always going to save me. I'd been noticing a _small_ bulge in my bicep, and this time I don't have to trick myself into believing a popped vein to be some type of muscle.

Queen Sess, looking at my wiry physique, had chuckled (not many get away with mocking Artemis Fowl II, and she was no exception) and given us contesters thirty minutes to warm up and prepare. She even gave me my own weapon. Which I almost dropped, but managed not to make a fool of myself.

Percy and Butler, being the most experienced at battle, were guiding me on the art of fencing. Being a multi-tasker, I listened to them while gazing at my adversary, who was doing knuckle push ups with apparent ease, at a speed not even my sharp eyes could not register.

I understood everything that Butler and Percy told me, but was unable to put them into action. I tried parrying a thrust Percy made to my chest, but my parry was too big, and I found myself with Riptide's tip pointed at my stomach.

'Better,' Percy encouraged. 'Just hit the blade hard enough to deflect, so the opponent's blade is out of reach. Otherwise, you'll be in what your opponent's position should be.'

'I know, I know,' I grumbled. 'I just don't know _how_ to do it.'

I knew that this training would have as much effect as doing crunches. It was our way of reassuring ourselves that the tables would turn, and we would win.

'This is useless.' I told them. 'It would be more practical to devise a plan to escape from this hell.'

I stroked the blade of my weapon dejectedly, trying to think of a plan that would save us. Something struck me. I started to grin.

'Actually, I don't think have to.

'Queen Sess, tell your _champion_ to stop showing off by doing some push ups and actually _face_ me in battle. You can tell him that he's not doing it correctly doing due to his elbow position, and his cheat method won't bear any fruit to save him from his downfall. So stop acting the maggot and try me.' I taunted, making my voice resonate across the room, trying to keep the stammers to a minimum.

While Cercyon looked at his position, puzzled at what was wrong, the queen and the dracaenae looked stunned, and gazed at me in disbelief, awe and a look that suggested that they thought I was exceedingly stupid – but I'm sure that was just by imagination.

Then my friends replicated that look and I lost my doubts.

I walked in to the centre of the arena, as Cercyon grabbed his swords and swaggered in.

'I hear you call me "demented show-off", eh? You mention "Theseus" also. I hate him! I hate him! I kill you for mention him and calling me bad things!'

 _What a baby_ , I thought. Then, _I hope he can't read thoughts_.

After my friends were shackled and forced into the seats, Queen Sess commenced the battle.

'Fight!' Queen Sess cried, her word echoed by a thousand dracaenae, resounding in the arena.

I slashed at Cercyon's neck, knowing he would easily block it, but I was just throwing shapes, wanting them to know that I wasn't going to be a pushover.

'Argh!' Cercyon screamed, dealing a massive blow to my shoulder. I sidestepped, the force being too great to block.

I raced my blade to his bumpy abdomen in a swift cut, but while one blade was resting on the ground, his other one rushed to meet mine and slapped it away. I struggled not to let go of my sword.

I jabbed at Cercyon's stomach, which was very much open, due to his recent movements. My friends applauded at my quick move, but Cercyon dodged, and raised his weapons offensively. Getting bored of the constant battling, he brought both his weapons down at my chest in a slanted hack, the angle of his slash making it unable for me to dodge in any manner.

I blocked the slash with all my strength, but his blades just batted my sword out of the way. My sword's tip fell to the ground, and before I could blink, Cercyon's glowing blades were at me.

I couldn't do anything. The blades connected simultaneously, hit, and went _through_ me, and out.

I had one thought: _it had been just twenty seconds_.

 **Percy Jackson**

Considering Artemis' physique, and the short time he had to train, he was doing quite well.

I cringed at his beginning move. I understood his tactics, but they won't work; rather they'd just and a little more fuel to Cercyon's bravado.

I've heard of Cercyon. He'd been this idiot guy, showing off his strength, killing all the innocent people of Eleusis. I think I hated him the most out of the old Greek villains; I have always hated bullies. He didn't have any skill, just crushed all his victims with a bear hug. But this time, he'd been able to pick up some skill.

I knew that – however positively Artemis was progressing – it won't be long before he fell. I had to work out a way to escape.

But then, the battle ended. Cercyon's blades passed through Artemis' body, no bone to get stuck through.

I brought my hands to my head in despair, not being able to believe what just happened. Connor and Butler were practically shouting, Connor's shackles making a clinking sound as he shook them in anger. Somehow, Butler had freed himself of his shackles, and was bending the bars of our prison, trying to get through. Holly's eyes were distant, and I understood her thoughts: _not again_.

Cercyon was doing a brutish victory dance, his blades swinging around carelessly, showing his broken, potholed teeth. I watched his weapons, enraged. Then something clicked in my head: there was no blood.

The weapons had _passed_ through Artemis, and had no effect on him. The smile on queen Sess's face faded, and appeared on Artemis' face. He swung his weapon at Cercyon's armpit, and connected, the blade stopped by Cercyon's big bones.

Artemis, struggled to pull out the blade, and when he did, Cercyon, howling, doubled over, his weapons on the ground, holding his half torn arm. Artemis took the chance and made a clean cut towards Cercyon's neck. The neck being quite close to the brain, there didn't seem to be any muscle or bone to break his strike there. Cercyon's head bounced onto the ground, and slowly disintegrated, and the dust blew off in the wind, leaving no sign that Cercyon was ever there, except for two clean, glowing Celestial bronze sword.

Queen Sess stood up, snarling. 'What sorcery is this?! Are you a ghost? You cheated, you sniveling demigod!'

Artemis smiled again, his smile filled with smugness and of cold victory. 'No, I'm no ghost. But neither am I a demigod. I think that the appropriate term would be "mortal". Yes, I like the sound of that. Hear that, queen? Your champion couldn't even defeat a mortal! And you keep my friends caged, fearing them, don't you? Your empire is truly finished, queen Sess.'

Damn, he's smart! Obviously, since he has no divine or monster blood, Celestial bronze has no effect on him whatsoever! But the only problem was, Artemis was a little too smug. His comment about the cage had made the dracaenae momentarily look at us, and realized that we were escaping.

'Run!' I yelled, and then realized that we haven't even properly escaped out of the cage, much less run, having no idea of our location.

We scrambled out of the cage, making use of the huge dent Butler had created in the bars, large enough for all three of us to get out at once.

The dracaenae jostled out of their seats, and within seconds, guards had us frozen, their blades at our necks.

The queen motioned to move towards us, uttering stuff about breaking rules and cheating, but suddenly, a hole appeared beneath her feet, and she fell, her sharp scream reverberating, and slowly fading.

A bearded head popped out of the hole like a rabbit. The man noticed the hoard of dracaenae, gulped, and scrambled back down. I felt the ground shake, as the person dug beneath us in an effort to escape.

Artemis realized what was happening, and repeated me. 'Run!'

We ran towards the door, and once we were out of the room, the earth opened its mouth wide, and gulped down the dracaenae.

After the dust cleared, I saw a very sheepish looking dwarf standing in the middle of the arena that wasn't now an arena. He had a rabbit in his mouth.

 **Holly Short –**

'Heh, I'm always saving you, aren't I?' Mulch walked to us, swaggering.

I walked up to him and kicked him in the bowels.

'Ow. Ow! What was that for? I saved you, didn't I?'

'Why are you here?'

'What do you think? To save you. Duh! And this is my repayment?!' Seeing my sceptical glare, he said, 'okay, okay; so I wasn't _really_ coming to save you… I was just chilling in York, chasing a rabbit. No! I haven't done anything wrong. Nope, not a dollop.' Then he frowned. 'But what brings you here?'

'Wait. Do you mean to say that you were anyway in America? Nothing outlandish happened? A blue orb, maybe?'

'What? No, I was in York for my holiday, remember? I've been here for months now.'

'Hmm…' Artemis pondered, his mind whirring. 'That's strange.'

'Yeah, well, we can think of that later.' Connor pointed at the arena.

The amphitheatre was collapsing, having no ground to support it. We were outside of it, but debris flew everywhere, and a pillar came off and rolled towards us, in that cliché way shown in movies.

We ran away. I heard the sound of footsteps, and knew that the dracaenae troops in charge of guarding the HQ were coming our way.

We ran, trying to pass unheard, which wasn't that hard, due to the deafening noise of the amphitheatre crashing down.

'How did you even do this?' I asked Mulch as I ran, incredulous that a single dwarf could cause all this in a single minute.

'I have no idea,' Mulch admitted, shrugging. 'I guess it's just my constantly improving abilities. I am, after all, Mulch Diggums.'

The ground burped, seemingly in applause of the mention of his name. Mulch paused for a pose, trying to show off his biceps, but sadly the picture was ruined by the abundant hair on his arms, of which there seemed to be different varieties.

Then all sound ceased, including the footsteps of the dracaenae. The pillar rolling towards us and the dust and debris froze in midair. Out of instinct, we all stopped, and slowly turned around.

 _FOOLS_ , a deep, growling voice boomed. _DO YOU THINK THAT A MERE DWARF COULD DO ALL THIS? MAYBE I SHOULDN'T HAVE CHOSEN YOU_.

'Is he… is he–?'

 _NO, CONNOR SALVADOR STOLL, I AM NOT WHOEVER IT IS THAT DARES HELP YOU IN YOUR FRUITLESS ATTEMPT TO STOP ME. WHOEVER THINKS THAT_ THEY _WERE THE ONES TO CHOOSE YOU, THEY ARE_ MUCH _MISTAKEN. YOUR ALLY MAY THINK THAT, BY USING THE TIDES, HE'LL BE ABLE TO STOP ME, BUT THEN HE THOUGHT WRONG._

'Tartarus,' Artemis murmured, the name resounding off the walls.

 _ARTEMIS FOWL. YOU WERE AN UNEXPECTED PIECE IN MY GAME, BUT SO FAR YOUR MOVES WERE EXPECTED. ARE YOU LOSING YOUR TOUCH?_

'Wait,' Percy interrupted. 'So _you_ purposefully killed all those dracaenae? Why?'

 _MORTALS. SO GULLIBLE._ A low chuckle was heard, seeming to make the earth tremble. _I AM TARTARUS! I OWN WHOEVER ENTERS MY REALM. HADES THINKS THAT, BY PLACING THANATOS, HE CONTROLS THE WALLS BETWEEN DEATH AND LIFE. THAT IS_ _ **FOLLY**_ _._

 _THE DRACAENAE SERVED THEIR PURPOSE, WHICH WAS ONLY TO ENTERTAIN ME. THEY WILL RETURN AGAIN WHEN I FEEL LIKE IT. DO NOT THINK THAT YOU WON ANYTHING. YOU HAVE ACTED JUST AS I PREDICTED; I DO NOT WANT YOU TO DIE_ SO _QUICKLY. NO._

 _KRONOS, GAEA, TYPHON, THE GIANTS; ALL WHO TRIED FAILED. BUT THEY WERE FOOLS; JUST THE MORE ELABORATE PIECES OF MY PLAN. UNLIKE ANY OF THEM, I HAVE NEVER BEEN SLUMBERING; I WAS ALWAYS THERE, INFLUENCING THE MINDS OF ALL, WITHOUT THEIR KNOWING. NOW, MILLENNIA LATER, MY TIME HAS COME. DO YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN THE WORST? THERE IS SO_ MUCH _TO SEE; THINGS THAT WILL MAKE YOU WISH YOU WERE BLIND. AH, YES, WHICH REMINDS ME…_

The ground rumbled, and a huge void fell into the centre of the amphitheatre, creating a huge void in place of the theatre. A black mist puffed from the ground like ash from a volcano.

'Like gases from my bum, with a few select ingredients,' Mulch murmured.

Yes, I suppose that simile is also suitable.

But then, the mist expanded, and its centre solidified, and turned into a picture, much like the portal that took us here and started everything.

Percy started to shake, and went charging at the mist. Connor, Butler and I held on to him.

' _What are you doing_?' I asked Percy sharply.

He uttered one word. 'Bob.'

I looked. There was a silver giant, shackles holding him down onto a ground made with sharp bones. His face was contorted with delirium and pain, but seemed to be too tired to scream.

 _YES,_ Tartarus said, and I could feel him grinning. _IAPETUS. 'THE PIERCER'. AND PIERCE HIM I DID_.

I looked. Iapetus wasn't just bound with chains. Spiked protruded from his shoulders, legs and arms. I hadn't seen them earlier because they shone the same silver as the giant.

Percy roared, Riptide glowing with a vengeance in his clenched fist. He broke free of us and flew at the mist.

The mist darkened, and the vision exploded into a million shards of darkness. The mist multiplied, and smoky tendrils seeped from everywhere.

 _NO, FOOLISH MORTAL. YOU CANNOT HURT ME. I RESIDE BELOW EVEN EREBUS, AND YET I AM ABLE TO WREAK SUCH HAVOC UPON THIS PUNY WORLD._

A dozen tentacles grabbed at Percy, twisting his limbs in painful ways. I cringed. I wanted to help him, but I knew that would be suicide. Artemis kept a hand on my shoulder, as if reading my thoughts.

 _I COULD LIQUIFY YOU. SQUASH YOU INTO SOMETHING LESS THAN AN ATOM. EXPLODE YOUR MOLECULES SO FAR YOU'D STRETCH FURTHER THAN THE SKY ITSELF._

Tartarus' voice turned cruel. _BUT THERE IS SOMETHING BETTER I COULD DO – LET YOU LIVE._

 _RUN ALONG, PETTY FOOLS; WITNESS MY VICTORY. YOUR QUEST SHALL REAP YOU NOTHING BUT MY SATISFACTION_.

Percy dropped to the floor, and the mist dissipated.

We ran towards Percy. He coughed, and murmured 'we need to get Bob'.

Butler helped Percy stand up, checking for any injuries.

'What did he do to you?'

'I… I don't know. Suddenly, I started looking at things in a new way. It was all so vivid. It was like looking at a god's true form from every direction. But everything was dark. The darkness grabbed from everywhere. It didn't grab me from my body… I felt lightweight. It was like… he was pulling at my soul.'

Before any of us could say anything, something thudded to the ground. We realised that, now that Tartarus was gone, gravity was taking hold. Debrii that, for so long had been levitating, shot at us like bullets, while pillars and walls crashed to the ground, rolling towards us like rams made of cement and bronze.

Hot adrenaline pumped into our blood as the primal part of our brains took over. All thoughts of Tartarus forgotten, we fled for our lives.

 **There you go – another chapter finished. Hope you liked it, because that's all you'd be getting for the whole month of March. Sorry!**


	6. Somebody Tell Him Wiretapping is Illegal

**New chapter! And we'd been able to finish the chapter on March, two days earlier than expected!**

 **Now I'd written a bit before my exams, so when I started writing again on March 29** **th** **, I'd sort of lost my touch, and I'd forgotten a few strands of my plot, so if the writing seems a bit weird, blame the schools. But one problem is that there have a lack of comments, so I don't know what you readers want. C'mon, give a little review of what you think – it really helps. Holidays are coming up, so I'll have more time than before to write, but there might be a few delays because of any programmes that might happen.**

 **Note: I got a Wattpad account! My username there is Eyereed, just like in , and I've added this same story to Wattpad with the link** **story/100337033-clash-of-the-ancients-artemis-fowl-and-the-greek** **If you like this story, make sure you vote and comment on this story on Wattpad as well!**

 **Disclaimer: No advertising of Kevlar or any of its products is intended.**

* * *

 **Artemis Fowl**

This is the first time I'd camped above a building beside a billboard. I can't say I disliked it though.

A new shop (Jack's Wings) had popped up in place of the dracaenae headquarters, and people were walking in and out of the shop like nothing had happened.

I noticed a book hanging out of Connor's backpack. I raised my eyes, seeing the title.

'Mind if I do?' I asked Connor, pointing at the blue book with the rather catchy title.

'What?' Connor looked at where I was pointing and blushed. 'Um… yeah, sure! I have the whole series here!' He paused. 'What? Uh, heh, um…'

I ignored his speech impediments and observed the book cover. I smirked; of course the book was named after me.

'Holly, you might want to see this.'

Holly quickly came towards me, Neutrino in hand to stop whatever the problem was.

'What?' She asked.

'Look.'

She inquiringly looked at the book and groaned.

'Are you serious, Artemis? Really? I mean, come on! Who's the author, anyway? I'm gonna… And that face! You do _not_ look like that! For one, you would never pose that way… and – argh!'

I chuckled. 'Maybe it's just my natural emanation of awe and greatness.'

'Stuff it, Fowl. I'm going to sleep.' She walked off, grumbling to herself.

Still grinning, I flipped through the pages. My smile widened as I completed the chapter. It had a nice finish.

'Thank you, Butler. That was quite complimentary of you.'

Butler looked at the final paragraph of the chapter. He sighed.

'Well, yes, I may have thought that', Butler said, wincing as he read the words, 'but… isn't it bed time? Go to sleep, Artemis.'

This was a happy day. Or night. I must remember to congratulate this unofficial biographer of mine. I would have shown this to Mulch as well, but one, he'll turn to the page where he escaped from my Manor, and two, he'd gone back to his New York den after we'd escaped.

I knew what will happen throughout, and most of the things I didn't really enjoy reading, so I skimmed through the pages and kept the book back. I saw another one, larger than the others, titled _The Time Paradox_. I quickly realised which misadventure it related to. I flipped to a random page, and stopped.

What? No! That's private! Who is this individual writing these books? I felt my face redden. I wanted to do something to this book, but I couldn't. I surreptitiously hid the book inside the backpack, hoping no one would notice.

Using my exceptionally outstanding intellect, I drifted my thoughts to something other than… that. Sadly, they weren't good thoughts either.

My eyes drifted towards the chains, which had returned mysteriously outside the shop, waiting for us like a trained puppy. I thought of how fruitless following the chains into that shop had been. Yes, I discovered a new power of mine, but otherwise, it just tired us down and lowered our morale.

I thought of Tartarus. How did he know about the prophecy or that somebody was helping us? His power seems to have escalated since Percy and Annabeth visited him. My thoughts drifted towards Bob. I remembered his personality; lacking in words but great in mind (no, not heart; the heart is an organ used for pumping blood, and could think less than tap dance).

I remembered the cruel way Tartarus spoke, sending shivers down my spine: _Your ally may think that, by using the Tides, he'll be able to stop me, but then he thought wrong_. Sometimes having a perfect memory can be a drag.

A jolt, like lightning, flashed within me, illuminating my mind. _By using the Tides?_ What does he mean by that?

I realised that Percy was not meant to be compulsory for the quest. _Hope lies only in the tides._ Percy was not 'the tides'. Someone else, then? Some _thing_?

I turned towards my comrades inquiringly, wanting to discuss this information. But that want only to see them fast asleep, early at eight post meridian. I realised that I was exhausted. Before I could properly get into my sleeping bag, I collapsed onto the roof, fast asleep.

 **Domovoi Butler –**

"Disgraceful, Butler! What are you doing? Your principal is vulnerable. Do you sleep while your charge is killed? How did you earn that Blue Diamond? Wake up! Wake up!'

Madame Ko's sharp voice pierced my dreams, and I woke up, sending my blanket into Percy's face.

I blinked and turned around. Madame Ko wasn't there; just a figment of my dreams that have been bothering me the past few days. I looked around. Sunrise was yet to come, and everybody was still sleeping. Percy moaned and threw off my blanket.

Now that I've woken up, I couldn't fall asleep. I strenuously pulled myself up, ignoring the bolts of pain that spread through my body. I tried everything, but nothing worked. Ever since that Berserker that possessed Juliet shot me with Opal's dark magic lightning, I felt like I'd aged more than ever. I swayed on my feet for a few seconds before regaining my balance. Physical imbalance: another sequela of getting shot.

I took off my shirt and dropped it next to my sleeping mattress (I never sleep in sleeping bags; too much time wasted fumbling around, trying to get out). I examined my chest. A thick red line was drawn from across my chest; a remainder of my Kevlar bulletproof vest. Dark purple lines ran like lightning patterns across my torso, starting from coincidentally the exact same spot Arno Blunt's bullet had hit me.

Countless doctors had diagnosed and treated me, but nothing worked. When they asked me how I got it, I bluffed and said that I was tased, which still got a widened eye from the doctor. I put my shirt on, along with my coat and Kevlar vest.

I looked around for immediate dangers, and finding none (other than the black chains, which I obviously did _not_ trust), I got my Sig Sauer and started cleaning it.

The chains rattled for a moment, and the poetic part of me envisioned it waking up, like it had a consciousness. It started circling our makeshift camp like a guard dog.

Suddenly, a flash of light caught my eye. The sun was rising. I checked the time: it was around five thirty. Having finished cleaning my pistol, I packed up everything, and got ready to go on wherever the chains took us.

Holly and Connor quickly woke up, and packed everything up. Artemis suddenly opened his eyes, and rose with liquid grace. He quickly packed up everything, and eyed the chains.

'Well? Since our navigator seems to be still, and Percy Jackson remains asleep, I think it would be best to discuss strategies.'

' _Discuss_ strategies?'I raised my eyebrow. 'Usually you just think out everything and tell us what to do.'

'True, but you are the one who told me to be more interactive.'

Holly spoke up. 'Okay then. So this is what we know.'

We waited for Holly to continue. A few moments passed.

'What? I mean, we technically know nothing.'

'Not quite, Holly,' Artemis contradicted, raising a finger.

Holly groaned. 'Geniuses.'

'Did you not listen to Tartarus? He said something about getting help from the tides, which is mentioned in the prophecy. Which means Percy is not the one whose help we need, it's something else.'

Connor grinned. 'You're lucky Percy's still sleeping.'

Percy snorted, and then turned face down, murmuring indistinctly.

'Anyway, I have never devoted myself fully to Greek mythology, having greater things to think about. Therefore I ask the experts on the subject _conscious_ on whether they know what these 'tides' might be.'

Connor looked around. 'Um, you mean me?'

Connor gave one more look to make sure didn't Artemis meant someone other than him. 'Damn.

'Okay, so what these tides most probably are is… they are…' Connor faltered, 'definitely not something I know.'

'Exactly what I expected.'

'Hey!' Connor raised his hands. 'Really? C'mon! You want facts, ask someone like Annabeth, not me! That's just not my thing, okay?'

'Exactly.' Artemis said. 'I didn't mean you.'

'What?' Connor gesticulated wildly, like he was painting Mona Lisa in the air.

'I was going to suggest that we Iris message Camp Half-Blood and report them about this, and thereby get the best idea.'

'No! Not the blue ones!' Percy yelled suddenly, shocking us for a moment. 'Those are my pancakes! Gimme…'

Percy raised his arms out, and opened his eyes. He sat up. 'Where did the pancakes go?' he asked us groggily.

Percy blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. 'Oh. Nice to see you've woken up early. What's the time?'

'Um… dude.' Connor interjected Percy's ramblings and said slowly. 'You know you said the pancakes thing out loud, right?'

'What? Oh, no…' He groaned. 'Look, I have weird dreams, okay? Just leave it at that. Seriously, I feel like I want the visions back again sometimes…'

'Wait, Percy.' Artemis interrupted inquiringly. 'Do you mean to say that you have stopped getting visions?' He turned to Connor. 'Does this include to you too? The whole demigod camp?'

'Well, yeah…' Connor said gradually. 'It was already during the war with Gaea, with the prophecies blocked up and stuff. Rachel and Ella are already questing for the Sibylline books, with still zero results. Then the divine connection we had faded even more after the war. Slowly, everybody stopped having visions and stuff.'

Artemis shook his head. 'Tartarus had already planned these things; he has been strengthening his hold without resistance, for we didn't even know he was acting. This is not good. If we have problems with visions, then the chances of a good Iris Message connection is quite low.'

We all looked at Artemis, sucking in more bad news; like we hadn't already got our week's month's full of bad news.

Holly snorted. 'You make it sound like we are going to Skype the camp.'

 **Percy Jackson –**

'Wait,' Connor asked. 'Fairies have Skype?'

'Of course not; we are simply aware of the progressions of human technology.'

I'd shut up for like a few minutes, so I guessed it was my turn to talk. 'Why are we Iris messaging?'

Connor looked at me. 'You aren't compulsory for the quest.'

I looked at Connor. 'What?'

'He means that the prophecy didn't mean you when it said 'tides'. It meant something else. Tartarus mentioned something about using the tides against him, when you were right there.' Artemis explained.

My eyes looked to the right as I tried to remember Tartarus's speech. 'Oh yeah, he did say something about that earlier, when he was saying that he wasn't the one helping us.'

'Exactly. Therefore we are going to contact Camp Half-Blood and tell them about this; they, most likely Annabeth, will be able to tell us who it is.'

'Oh. Okay. Like, "hey, guess what, Percy's not supposed to be here? Any idea who is supposed to help us?"'

'Yes. That exactly.'

'What? No!'

'So, has anybody got a drachma?' Artemis asked.

'Drachma? Oh, right. I remember; you use those golden coins to communicate, right?' Holly said, nodding her head.

Artemis looked at Holly. 'How do you know?'

'Oh, yeah, I used to read that series a few years ago. Didn't read the second series, but yeah.'

'I've got a few.' I rummaged in my backpack, navigating through my various shirts, underwear, chicken wing packets (I'd snatched some while we were running; no use leaving good wings to waste) and bronze and silver obols and hemidrachms, and I finally got my hands on a golden drachma. 'Here.'

'Okay, we need some steam now. I have a water bottle, and Percy can, like, evaporate it.' Connor suggested.

'Um, yeah; I'm not Frozone. I'm not sure I can change the physical state of water.'

'No problem,' Holly said. 'I can set my Neutrino to complete thermal radiation.'

'New update?' asked Artemis, raising an eyebrow.

'Yep. Foaly recently made the Neutrino Versatile 1.0. It's a limited edition, and it's got everything, even though I'm not sure why. It's even got a torch.'

Artemis nodded his head, and then stopped. 'Wait. You _have_ a torch?'

'Um… yeah, well, simply lowering the setting is easier than fumbling through all those buttons and whatnot. I haven't discovered half the stuff in this thing.'

Connor raised a hand. 'Uh, yeah, can we start now?'Cause the chains might start moving any second.'

'Of course', said Artemis smoothly, 'Connor, open your water bottle. Percy, try to keep the water particles levitating in the air. Holly, get your thermal setting on.'

Artemis' curt orders set us into action. As Connor kept the opened water bottle on the ground, I concentrated, and the water inside slowly levitated, making a circle of water in the air. Holly beamed at the water with her Neutrino, turning it to mist, while I concentrated on making sure the water vapor stayed in the same place. A small rainbow appeared beneath it.

Artemis flipped the coin. 'O, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Camp Half-Blood.'

Butler chuckled. 'I never expected that I'd hear those words coming from you, Artemis.'

Artemis smiled wryly. 'Usually, no one expected anything that I do, Butler.'

I would've said something, but then I saw something. 'Nothing's happening.'

Artemis frowned. 'That is… regrettable.'

I got an idea. 'Wait, I know what to do.'

I took the coin and flipped it, while saying, 'O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Camp Half-Blood.'

The rainbow rippled, and the colors shifted, slowly turning into the inside of the Big House.

Artemis raised his eyebrows. 'Ah, yes… the direct number.'

There seemed to be some kind of meeting. Maybe Rachel spouted another prophecy or something. Although I didn't see any discussion: I saw Clovis sleeping with a pencil up his nose; I saw Clarisse arm wrestling Travis, while Cecil was shooting paper airplanes at people and starting fights between clueless campers; Rachel was having a discussion with Katie while feeding Seymour.

They froze when they saw my face (I pity them; having to see my face all zoomed up).

'Percy?' Chiron said; the first to speak.

'Uh, yeah. So basically, the chains haven't led us anywhere yet… but…'

Artemis cut in. 'We have a revelation regarding the prophecy.'

'A revelation? What do you mean?' Rachel asked.

'Remember when we said 'the tides' mean Percy?' Artemis asked. 'Dionysus was wrong.'

'Hmm…?' Chiron inquired. 'Then who is it?'

I slowly walked away, realizing that most of the campers' eyes were focused on me. Artemis took over the conversation.

'We are not completely sure, and are not even sure when it's even a person, or whether it's a _thing_. The chains led us to a restaurant…'

Artemis gave a quick round-up of our brief but jarring adventure, and Chiron's face grew grimmer as the story was retold.

After Artemis has finished speaking, Annabeth spoke up, 'so the progress you've made is basically…'

'Null. Void. Naught. Not a sausage. A few other synonyms.' Artemis said calmly. 'That's why we called you. We need your help to find out what these **'** tides **'** are.'

'Right… so, no other things to tell us of any importance?' Clarisse asked bluntly. 'I mean, not to be a wet blanket, but you've done basically nothing but ask for our help.'

I scowled; trust Ares to be all _manly_ and not ask for help. I was also irritated because I agreed with Clarisse; I mean, why pick on the cool guy?

But before any of could respond, the chains came charging at the Iris message vision and the vision broke into teeny-tiny bits of light. The campers, who'd seen the chains charging, cringed as if the chains would teleport towards them through the vision, and shouted something, but the connection was broken.

 **Connor Stoll –**

I blinked. Well, that was our cue to stop the natter and start moving.

But the fuzzy pixels rearranged themselves together and created a new picture. A man was standing in the vision, with the sky for a background. He had sandy, golden hair and skin tanned golden, and wore a sleeveless golden shirt, a pair of Wayfarer shades and a chill grin.

'Ah!' The guy said. 'How satisfying to finally get a proper connection with my chosen heroes!'

Percy looked at him for a second, and facepalmed. 'Apollo?'

The guy grinned, and then frowned. 'Sorry, what? Who is Apollo?'

'Um… the god of the sun? The god of archery? You?'

'Huh? No no, I am not Apollo. That's… ah! I remember! That little kid turned four thousand five hundred only last century. Oh, yes, no no, I'm not him… you'll see him soon enough. He's in some teeny trouble, and you will have to help him in you want – oh, but why was I here again?'

I racked my head, trying to get all that info in my head without exploding. 'So… who are you?'

'Me? I'm the person who gave you these helpful chains here to help defeat the pit!'

'Yeah, real helpful,' Percy snorted.

'Ah, well, it can go a little rogue sometimes; but it's about the only thing that I have a strong history with, and therefore the only thing I can influence from here.' The person who gave us these helpful chains here to help defeat the pit said.

'Wh… Where are you? _Who_ are you? Seriously?' Holly asked.

'Indeed,' Artemis said. 'I wish for the pleasure of knowing the name of our patron.'

'Oh, I'm neither near, nor far. I'm a little trapped somewhere, but I'll break out sometime and help you fight Tartarus when he breaks through the corpse of G… the earth, but till then, I can only communicate using these chains and these light visions.'

Butler grunted. 'That's about as useful as when you spoke through the Oracle.'

'Oh! I was speaking through the Oracle? So _that's_ why the connection was so distorted and demanded that I spoke in rhymes to communicate!'

He chuckled, and we awkwardly mimicked his laughs.

'But that's not why I called,' he said, a grim look replacing his cheer. 'You'll meet your next hurdle soon. I advise you to start moving west, towards the land of Hesperus. You will not have to search for her; she'll come to you.'

'The land of Hesperus?' I asked, bemused.

'Yes; Vesperia. Anyway, be careful of the sisters, they can be a little unpredictable, but – oh, and I hear that they've upgraded their transportation! I don't know these mortal methods… really. You've changed so much since I first saw your kind! Of course, that was still in the Golden Ages, so…'

Artemis closed his eyes. 'Look, I don't know what to call you, but –'

'Call me "aka James Smith". James Smith for short.'

'Right. So…'

'Ah, of course! You are right! I almost forgot! Don't let–'

The vision crackled with electricity, and the image of _aka James Smith_ flickered, and turned into a man with dark hair and pale blue skin, eyes crackling with the intensity of the sun. His image lasted for a millisecond, and then flickered and faded into the background. The corners of the vision faded away, and the vision disappeared completely, leaving a rainbow in the air, made by some levitating water and a light beam from Holly's Neutrino.

I noticed something. 'Hey, where are the chains…?'

Right on cue, the chains exploded out from midair and landed in front of Percy.

'What the…' Percy gave a shriek and fell backwards into his sleeping bag. The water abruptly dropped down as gravity took hold, and we were soon drenched in water.

Except for Artemis, who'd somehow managed to escape; but then he's Artemis.

'Alright, so, let's get moving.' Butler said curtly, the first to recover.

The chains rattled in agreement and started moving. We stood up, stretched and followed, carrying our backpacks with us.

'Hey!' Somebody shouted from behind us.

We turned. It was Percy. 'I haven't packed up yet!'

* * *

 **Again, it's a 3000+ words chapter of natter and blather. So, what is this land of Hesperus? And isn't Vesperia a video game?**

 **So that's the end of another chapter. Make sure to comment on your ideas and a vote if you like it; I'm still a beginner; this is my first story, so I need those reviews! Until next chapter…**


	7. Let Me HEAL You

**New chapter! Sorry I was late!**

 **SAYURU: Hmm... Maybe. Read on, and see...**

 **Rocker On: Nah, he can** ** _levitate_** **water (he did stand atop a hurricane twice). He just can't fly physically. And as for the mysterious interrupter... heh, heh... maybe...**

 **And nice idea with the 'demons' and Tartarus! That's what these reviews are all about, guys! Helping my writing, giving** ** _your_** **ideas about it, and letting me know what you think by predicting what will happen.**

 **Sarite: Yeah, well, James Smith** ** _is_** **their patron, so the heroes just got to roll. I expect they are used to the immortals weird way by now though.**

 **Rosycat: Thanks! Yeah, I' going for my own thing, and not copying from Trials of Apollo, but I might get a few ideas that I can't help add in to the story... but mostly, Trials of Apollo will not affect this.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Google, or any of its productions (eg: Google Maps), and I do not mean to advertise or criticize it. Neither do I own Bentley nor advertise or criticise its products.**

* * *

 **Percy Jackson –**

We followed the chains, looking for all the world like a group of friends, with a fairly large chaperone and a little terrier. Now that I'd met our patron, I didn't know what to think about him. He sounded really high and mighty when speaking through Rachel, but now, speaking through Fleecy's communication service, face-to-face, he sounded like a fairly wacky New York dude, sort of like a brother of Iris.

And we were supposed to walk towards West, towards the land of Hesperus. Me being me, I had no idea whatsoever who that was.

'Hey, Artemis, you have any idea what 'aka James Smith' was talking about?'

Artemis looked at me with his azure blue eyes. 'About what? Vesperia?'

'Yeah.'

'Actually, I've been thinking about it. According to a research, James Smith is supposed to be the most popular name in the world, so our patron sounds a bit shady. Or maybe he's just being a normal god and giving as less information as possible. However, I've been able to deduct his riddles to a certain extent. Hesperus is the Greek god of the evening star.'

'You mean Venus?' I asked, showing off my limited knowledge of astronomy and William Blake's poetry.

'No, Hesperus is the name given to the immortal consciousness of the evening star, the brother of Phosphorus, the morning star.'

'Phosphorus? You're not messing with me?'

'No, the chemical was named after the god, meaning 'light-bearer'. I do not know how the same celestial object got two different consciousnesses, but then how can you explain the fact that the sun landed on the Earth in your adventure with Atlas and the Earth didn't explode and the sun was still in the sky; or that I can see the sun right there when Apollo lies imprisoned?

'Anyway, Hesperus, Roman cognate Vesper, is basically the evening star, so 'the land of Hesperus' is basically the land of the evening star, and Vesperia means the same thing.'

I took a bit of time to process everything Artemis just said, and once I did, I said, 'so…'

'We are going to meet some god?' Connor asked, completing my sentence.

My thoughts completely mirrored Connor's. Another egomaniacal god was the last thing I needed; I'd had enough experiences of those the last five years, enough for a few centuries.

Before I could express my distaste at this, Artemis spoke up. 'Ah! I remember! Vesperia was one of the names that were nominated upon deciding the name of Canada. In the 16th century, before the country was named, several dozen names were concocted, from Victorialand to Efisga, an acronym for "English, French, Irish, Spanish, German and Aboriginal", and of course, Vesperia.'

'Efisga? Seriously? That's so racist. I wonder what Frank would have said when he realized that 'C' wasn't part of the name.'

Holly nodded, 'It makes sense. We are supposed to move west, and Canada is west to New York.'

'Yes', Artemis agreed. 'But rather a Northwest, since we started our journey from Long Island.'

'Wait.' I raised a hand. 'Does this mean that we'd have to walk _all_ the way from here to Niagara Falls?'

Butler frowned. 'What's the problem? All we've got to do is get some plane and we'd be there in an hour and a half. It's not that big a problem; the airport's really close.'

'Uh, yeah, problem. Son of Poseidon; Zeus rivalry; Zeus god of sky; blah-blah-blah.'

Everybody froze, leaving the chains to slither off.

'Wait', Artemis sputtered, struggling to keep his voice steady. 'Does this mean that we have to– to _walk_ all the way there?'

Butler snapped out his phone. 'Which means on average 122 hours, according to Google.' After we stared at him for a few minutes, he said 'what? It's good for cardio.'

I was thinking up something to Butler, but then I realized something. 'Hey! Where are the chains?'

We all switched off our safety catches and rushed forward, trying to find the chains.

I asked a random mortal, 'hey, did you see a, um, a black Labrador somewhere here?'

'Nope,' she shook her head, and I pulled my hair in despair. 'I saw a retriever run off there, though.'

I slapped my head in exasperation, but after seeing the woman's bemused expression, I quickly thanked her and went along the road she pointed to, my friends tagging behind me.

We quickly found the chains, moving around the pavement, getting a few smiles from the mortals in the vicinity, smiles that would've turned straight upside down if they'd seen the chains in its true form.

The journey got a little boring. Butler was casually jogging after the chains, while we tried to keep pace, cursing along as we went. I checked the time: it was nine; we'd left at seven thirty. So we'd been walking for _two and a half hours_. We are Americans, for Olympus' sake! We aren't supposed to walk this much!

We chatted around idly, there being nothing much to do. We noted a Cyclops selling hot dogs, a statue chatting around with his friend, and a few other weird things. A gang that looked like a troupe of muggers walked past us, but none of them got close to Butler.

We let this pass; no use picking random fights when we could be peacefully walking four hundred miles, right?

A lady bumped into me, jarring me from my thoughts and I fell down. I swept the dust off me and stood up.

'Oh, I'm so sorry!' The lady apologized.

'Yeah, it's fine.' I said, waving it off.

She looked at us with startling brown eyes. 'No, really, I didn't mean it. I'm in a real hurry today; they've been getting really hard now. I'm Aite, who are you guys?' She asked, looking at us.

'Oh, uh, I'm Percy, and this is Connor, Artemis, Holly, and, uh, Elmo.'

Butler glared at me, while Aite frowned when she heard Artemis' name, and looked at us, as I she could see us for what we were.

'Hmm… nice names… Say, you know the best way I can go to Buffalo? I need to be there.'

'Oh, the airport's that way,' Connor pointed, feigning the fact that we weren't heading to the same place.

'Oh, no, planes aren't for me,' she shook her head. 'Thanks anyway.'

And she whizzed past us like the wind, and we stared for a moment.

Artemis frowned. 'You shouldn't have given our real names.'

I shrugged. 'Hey, at least I didn't mention Butler's name; since that's supposed to be a secret.'

Artemis' frown deepened. 'You know Butler's name?'

'Yeah, duh. It's all in the books.'

Artemis didn't look happy. 'Come on, we are losing the chains,' he said, disgruntled.

We followed Artemis in agreement, but Butler – oblivious to our conversation – pointed out, 'I do not pretend to genuinely know what's happening here, but do you think that Aite might be a demigoddess?'

I frowned. 'Hmm… Yeah, I did feel a powerful aura when she came along. We should help her! She'd probably get eaten by an _empousa_ or something in this part of New York.'

Artemis laid an arm on my shoulder. 'Or she could be lucky and live a normal life, away from all this strife of mysterious gods and _dracaenae_ queens. The thing is, we have more important things to attend, such as saving the entire _community_ of demigods, as well as the entire world.'

I hated to agree with Artemis, but I had to. We continued along our journey, but I had a tingling feeling that we'd see Aite again.

A few minutes later, the chains stopped, but we were in no special place – just in a normal pavement in a normal road. (I don't know where, since I've never been here and wasn't focusing on where we were going.)

We looked around, trying to figure out what's so special about the place.

'Maybe the chains were getting tired or something,' I suggested.

Artemis tilted his head to a side. 'That would imply that the chains are sentient – are you suggesting that the chains are alive?'

I gulped, a gulp echoed by my friends.

I tried to get the thought out of my mind, and a 2017 Bentley Bentayga W12 First Edition came roaring towards us. Damn! A 2017 Bentley Bentayga W12 First Edition?! That's like, almost three hundred grand!

The luxury SUV actually parked just a few feet from us, letting me relish in every bit of the Bentley's beauty: the 22-inch diamond cut wheels; the 6.0L W-12 600hp engine twin turbo; the majestic physique… Oh. My. God.

'Hello? Earth to Percy?' Connor started waving his hand in front of my face, which blocked my view of the car.

'Hey! Stop that!' I said angrily. 'You know what that is?'

'Um… yeah: a car,' Connor shrugged, nonplussed.

I shook my head. 'You don't get it, man. You don't get it at all. That', I said, pointing at the car, ' _that_ is basically the greatest ever SUV to ever be seen by the human eye! A Bentley Bentayga W12!' I nodded my head vigorously in godly praise – surely they'd understand now.

'Um, right, so… nice car, I guess.' Connor said, shrugging again.

Before I could say anything, Holly interjected. 'Uh, yeah, but you'd want to see the guys in the car.'

I looked at the Audi, and a grisly picture met my eyes. Three women, their faces so wrinkled and bubbling they looked like melting plastic, grayish brown hair covering their eyes, hobbled towards us with the support of a pure black log as their walking stick, the hems of their torn robes following them from the SUV. As they did, one pointed a yellowed foot-long claw, projected from a corpse-gray gnarled handed at me.

'He has the odor.' They uttered harmoniously, showing blackened gums with just one browned tooth hanging from them.

 **Artemis Fowl –**

I recoiled at the sight of the women, and was more unsettled when they uttered that Percy had an odour appeasing to the clamshell-shaped noses of the witch-like women.

They hobbled on till they were around a metre from us, and said, 'you all were with the mischievous one, were you not?'

'Who?' Butler asked, unperturbed by their appearance.

'Ah… you! You've been affected, I see! Yes, she does that all the time she meets someone. Let me _heal_ you…' A woman tottered towards him.

Butler, who'd lost his usual reflexes, stammered how he wasn't affected by anybody, when the woman touched his chest with a fingernail, and a blue energy rippled from the point of contact and spread throughout Butler's body.

'Yes, you are right… It wasn't her, but you've been harmed too much all the same. This should _heal_ you.'

The blue energy glowing around Butler's body turned a malicious red and got sucked back in through the woman's fingernail.

Butler gasped, and stood straight out of the one-centimetre slouch he'd been in due to his chest injury and got back the glow in his eyes, the cobwebs of pain not covering his sharp eyes anymore.

'How?!' He exclaimed, one of the few moments he'd ever been surprised, and the feeling of astonishment reached me as well.

The women smiled. 'It is our talent, for we are the healers. Now, come, we must away, for she already must be far-away.'

If they were the healers, I wondered why they didn't heal themselves, but I kept my thoughts to myself.

Through the corner of my eye, I saw the chains wriggle into the SUV, and apparently my friends saw too. The healers, oblivious, rambled on.

'Yes, we've been following Aite for years, we have.' The name jarred our selves, but we didn't say anything. 'Did she tell you where she was going?'

'Oh, yes, she said she was going to Buffalo – to see Niagara Falls, I presume.' I opined.

'Ah, of course, of course, to cross the borders. We should have seen that.'

They trudged back to their SUV, but after seeing the chains relaxing in the rear seat, I stopped them.

'In actuality, we are also heading there, so, if it's okay with you…' I gestured, signing that we'd like to join them in the Audi, which they understood and agreed.

A few seconds later, we were cooling down (I believe others would call it 'chilling') in the luxury car, while the healers rambled on about their various stories.

I have one thing to say: they had no respect for road rules. For the first time, I realised what it was like to ride a rollercoaster, even though I'd never been in one.

'Ha ha! For years we'd followed the swift-footed Aite, vainly trundling after her with our walking-staffs… but then we purchased this! Now we'd catch her easily; in minutes, in fact!'

I felt sorry for Aite, with these sinister _healers_ stalking after her, but Connor chose to interrupt their rants with a pertinent question.

'Right, so, who are you?'

'Ah, us? We are the Litae, the _kourai_ of Zeus.'

I waited, but they kept on driving like the matter was closed. I'd expected a little bit more explanation. I would've asked for more, but their tone implied that we were supposed to know what they were simply by knowing their names.

They drove as if there were no other vehicles on the road, and the other vehicles acted liked there was no Bentley Bentayga W12 – with a 6.0 WR12 48v engine (used in a 600 horsepower form to set the 24-hour record of 323 km/h), 4-wheel anti-lock brakes, and pricing $294,700 – rushing around. (Yes; I have been listening to Percy.)

We soon reached our destination – within the record time of half an hour – and we got down to the pleasing breeze of the Niagara River, but because I've been here several times and because we had a different mission, I stopped appealing myself by watching the view and planned on how to escape from the Litae without paying for the drive and find and warn Aite. (I should've planned this while in the SUV; this is what happens when I accept Butler's and Mother's whims…)

My friends, thinking the same thing, uttered a quick thank-you and ran away, with me struggling to follow them. It was in times like these that I considered myself fortunate to have been given a new body without two left feet. (Oh, of course; we could just run.)

After we'd achieved enough displacement between the Litae and us, we stopped. 'What now?'

'Finding the chains, I imagine,' Holly said.

The chains were in the Bentley.

 **Connor Stoll –**

'No worries – it is right here,' I said, pointing at the chains, which were lazing around near the stone fence.

The chains writhed, as if spelling out letters with its body to say _I'm, sorry – that was a terrible idea_. Or rather, _Ha ha. Idiots_.

We looked at each other, unsure what to do.

'Right, so… we reached the toll road… and Bridal Veil Falls is right over there… so… what do we do?' Percy said, voicing his cluelessness.

Artemis, being our thinker, spoke up. 'Rainbow Bridge lies right there,' he said, pointing to our right.

'Oh.' We walked towards the bridge. And then stopped, realizing Artemis wasn't with us.

'You realize that Rainbow Bridge is a toll road and by crossing it you are crossing an international boundary, I hope?'

'Oh,' we repeated synchronously.

'Repetition is a sign if redundancy, you know.'

I liked how Artemis roasted everybody in the books, but I realized it was not so pleasant when _I_ was the target.

[Why are you giving me that look? Huh? "Learn anything?" What do you mean 'learn anything'? What did _I_ do?!]

'Yeah… so, um…'

'How about we use Percy's powers to get us to the other side?' Artemis opined exasperatedly.

'Exactly what I was going to say!' I agreed, shaking my head at the idiocy of the others. 'Really, Percy. They're your powers you know. You should be more aware of yourself…'

I promptly dodged a kick from Percy and we walked towards the edge of road, looking at the river, trying to measure the distance we'd have to fall down from the safety of the thick, protective rock fence.

Percy was bemused. 'What? That's just like, I don't know, 183 feet and 2.13 inches?'

I looked at Percy, about to punch him in the shoulder, but stopped when I saw Percy's genuinely perplexed face.

'Well, Percy?' Artemis said, an eyebrow raised. 'Those 183 feet and 2.13 inches aren't getting any shorter.'

'Right.' Percy raised an arm, but I stopped him.

'Wait. Mortals aren't accustomed to people jumping into the river.' I interjected.

I found my own solution. I clicked my fingers sharp and loud, and sent a thought through the minds of the mortals: _we don't exist. Look away…_

A strange gust of wind erupted from my palm and spread throughout the area, chilling our skins as the Mist worked on the eyes of the mortals.

'Hey,' Percy cut in. 'You know that Mist trick?'

'What, this? It's nothing. Chiron told me that trick like _years_ ago.' I said, shrugging. 'Isn't that part of the novice training you get as soon as you join camp.'

Percy looked appalled, although I couldn't imagine why. 'You mean _every_ single camper learned this trick?!'

'Um… yeah…' I trailed off, trying to figure out why Percy looked so sulky and Artemis was chuckling.

Percy shook his shoulders. 'Never mind.' He grumbled something about Thalia and Chiron and raised his hands.

'Alright, so we'll all climb on top of the fence.'

We did as Artemis told us.

'Wait, what are we doing again?' For the first time, Butler's voice sounded puzzled.

'Percy is the son of Poseidon, Butler. He can control the water.'

'Oohhh…' Butler realized, and then laughed his blush off. 'Well, then, Percy? What are we waiting for?'

Percy closed his eyes, and we jumped in perfect coordination to the deep blue Niagara river.

 _Wait._ I jolted. _I can't swim_.

* * *

 **Alright, so that's the end of the chapter. No, I do not own a Bentley Bentayga, and nor am I advertising one.**

 **Can the demigods save Aite from the Litae? What will happen next?**

 **I'm sorry for the late update, guys; I have less computer time because my computer got destroyed and I am typing from a borrowed computer.**


	8. Demigods Are Actually Traffic Signs!

**Thanks guys for hanging around; we just reached the eighth chapter! Almost halfway done! Sorry if this one's short; I was in a hurry to finish this because I didn't want to delay longer.**

 **CarrotCake19: Thanks! Glad you joined the team! As for the Cyclops, well, maybe... OK, you caught me. I'd actually dropped Awakening the Father, but I might continue it as a sequel to this. Right now, though, I'm completely focused on this.**

 **Rocker On: I don't know who said that, and I don't know why the person is fond of capitals, but 'LAZINESS PREVAILS' is true on this case. Fortunately, you didn't spoil anything when you checked on the goddess. But as for the patron, go on! Research! That's how you get the answer!**

 **And um, chimera bits and centaur radish? Riiiight...**

 **SAYURU: Thanks for the prediction. See, Rocker On? That's what I mean. Now, let's see whether you are right... As for the** ** _Litae_** **, read and see!**

 **Rosycat: Thanks! It seems hard when you see that you have to capture the style of both authors, but once you ignore the authors and see the characters, that's when the game gets on the road. It's nice to know you like it.**

 **About last chapter, guys: I've only been to Niagara Falls once, and that was when I was really young, so I may have muddled up the details, so please don't flame me for that.**

 **Disclaimer: This chapter is completely for entertainment and does not in any way critise or advertise any commercial product or company; nor does it support illegal immigration (thanks for pointing that out, Rocker On).**

* * *

 **Holly Short –**

I felt a feeling I haven't properly felt for the past few days, despite the circumstances: exhilaration.

The wind seemed to rip my face off as we dropped into the blue water.

It lasted only a second, but that was enough. Within that second, I saw everything around me: the water droplets floating on the wind; the twisting tornado of water that spun to Percy's command; the gushing, unforgiving river beneath us, getting closer and closer…

We hit the river with a huge _SPLASH!_ The water convulsed, rearranging itself to hold us, and like a aquatic roller coaster ride, we rode atop the river with mind numbing speed, and once we reached the climax, the water erupted from below like a volcano, and we were blasted to the sky, and like caressing hands, a tongue of water brought us gently to the surface.

Once we calmed down, we stood up and Percy automatically dried our clothes.

'That. Was. AWESOME!' I said, the adrenaline still coursing through my veins.

Percy grinned. 'Yeah, I guess it was.'

Artemis frowned. 'You could have just made a bridge of water and we could have safely crossed it.'

'Oh, yeah…' Percy said, scratching his head.

Artemis scowled.

'Oh come on, don't be a killjoy,' I said, slapping Artemis on the back. 'That what we call fun!'

'Fun as it may be, that is not our purpose. We are better off finding Aite.'

Butler frowned. 'Wait. Where in Canada were we supposed to go, again?'

We all stared at Butler. 'Oh,' was all we could say.

I looked at Artemis, a habit I've developed quite strongly over the years of our misadventures. Sure enough, Artemis' face was wracked with concentration as ideas circulated around his brain.

'Well, I remember a story that Butler told me…' Artemis looked at Butler. 'The one about Osseo?'

'Ah, yes,' Butler nodded. 'Osseo, the son of the Evening Star… One of my Shawnee friends told me that one.'

'Wait,' Connor frowned. 'What? I have a few friends from Osseo, in Minnesota. It's a place, right?'

Butler raised his eyebrows. 'Actually, it's a person. He is supposed to be the son of the Evening Star.'

Even Percy seemed perplexed, and I was starting to feel so too. 'Wait, I just checked Wicca-pedia, and it isn't in Minnesota – it's in Michigan!'

The trio raised eyebrows at each other, not knowing which story was true.

'Hang on, friends. All three of your stories are correct. Osseo is indeed a place; actually two places, having the same name. The names of the cities probably came from the myth of Osseo, the son of the Evening Star.' Artemis intervened.

'So what you're saying is that we shouldn't be here, and we should actually be in Minnesota?' I asked, incredulous.

Artemis shrugged. 'Or Michigan, which is closer.'

'Oh yeah, like just five hundred kilometres away, I suppose!' I added.

'Actually, that would be around five hundred and fifty kilometres.' Artemis corrected.

'Oh, phew, an added fifty kilometres. That makes me feel so much better,' I grumbled. 'Not to mention that we'd have to go all the way to Minnesota if we aren't right about Michigan.'

Artemis would've replied – with some snarky counter, no doubt – but was deprived of the chance when I felt a shadow fall from behind me.

'You again!' A surprised treble voice exclaimed from behind my shoulder.

I turned around to look upon a face with impish brown eyes and jet black hair, atop a long dark-blue dress. It was Aite.

 **Connor Stoll –**

'What are you doing here?' Aite asked, surprised. 'I didn't know you were coming here as well!'

'Yeah, well, there's more to where that came from,' I replied bleakly. 'Listen, you have a serious problem.'

'No duh I do!' Aite exclaimed, hands at her hips. 'Do you have any idea how hard it is to always have to move around with those crotchety women on my case?'

'Wait…' Percy said, holding up his palms. 'So you know about them?'

'Anybody would, if they were chased by them for three millennia!'

I took a step back. 'Sorry- What do you mean "millennia"?'

'Hey, just because I'm not four thousand years old yet doesn't mean I haven't got the same issues the other 'big' gods have got, okay?'

'Right. So you're a goddess.' I deduced. 'And you're being chased by some weird Litae women.'

'How do _you_ know about them?' Aite asked, her eyes widening.

'Well, we came here with them. They have this Bentley Bentayga something something that–'

'…A 2017 Bentley Bentayga W12 First Edition,' Percy clarified.

'… Yeah, that.' I resumed. 'Anyway, we hitched a ride on it and they were talking about how they wanted to catch you and stuff.'

'I know, it used to be so much easier when all the transport they had was their walking sticks, but then stupid technology turned up and turned my life into a never-ending treadmill. Oh, no… they're here… This is bad.' Aite started to glow, and a golden light emanated from her and wrapped itself around her, transforming her into her Mistless form.

But unlike other deities, she wasn't wearing any Greek clothes or togas or anything. She looked the same she was before she started to glow, but now a visible aura radiated from her, refining the divine stature of the goddess.

'Wait,' Artemis said, interrupting. 'You are Aite right? Isn't that the same as _, the Até goddess of mischief?'_

 _'_ _Oh, sure,' she said, her eyes twinkling. 'For example, your shoes are untied.'_

 _Artemis looked down. 'Funny,' he replied, rolling his eyes, and bent down to tie his shoes. Immediately, his other foot knocked on a stray stone and he fell down._

 _Aite chuckled, while Artemis scowled, not seeing the point in the joke. Now I'm into pranks, but I didn't see the point either. This was old school._

 _'_ _O, old school, you say?' Aite asked, as if reading my thoughts. 'You wait…'_

 _'_ _Right… so what do we do now?' Holly asked. 'You know who the tides are?'_

 _'_ _What? 'Tides'? No, I'm afraid not. But that isn't the reason I was searching for you.'_

'Huh? So you were searching for us?' I asked, intrigued.

'Yes, I was. I had a vision that I'll find you here. I didn't realize it was you back in the States.'

'Ah, of course!' Artemis clicked his fingers with the air of someone who had just figured something out. ' _To the sacred bloods, Folly rides_. _Até is also the goddess of folly. But who are the sacred bloods?' Artemis asked, frowning. 'Us?'_

 _'_ _Yes, exactly. I'm not allowed in your camp, being banished by Zeus etc…'_

 _'_ _Why were you banished by Zeus?' I asked, uninformed._

 _'_ _Oh, you know the story. I helped Hera to delude Zeus into announcing that the first child borne by his blood to be born will grow to be the king of Mycenae… and then Hera made Eurystheus be born before Heracles, which made Eurystheus the king of Mycenae, since his father Sthenelaus was the grandson of Zeus. So as a gift for obeying Hera, I was thrown from Olympus by my own father's hands._

 _'_ _He tried to erase the memory that I was his daughter, and spread tales about how I was_ _Eris_ _'_ _child, and got those hobbling Litae, called_ _them_ _the daughters of Zeus, when they were really just his_ _kourai_ _(maidens), and I've been on the run ever since.'_

'Whoa,' I breathed. 'That's a sad story.'

'Yeah,' she shrugged nonchalantly. 'But hey, that's life. I'm okay.' She grinned. 'Anyway, so I'm not allowed in your camps either, so I had to wait until a few of you got out of camp so I could talk to you. I had this vision that I'd find you in Canada.'

'Well, _we_ got the message to go come to Canada by our patron.' I said.

'Ah, so you talked to your patron? Who is he?'

'Yeah, we're still not sure,' Percy shrugged. 'But you didn't answer our question yet. How is _our_ blood sacred?'

Aite laughed. 'You know, you demigods sure are ignorant. You have the golden blood of the gods, stiff, unchanging and somewhat narrow, but it's blended with the red blood of mortals, gifting you with flexibility and a broad path, with the capability to choose what _you_ want to be. With the power of the gods _and_ the flexibility of humans, we are really surprised that you aren't controlling the world by now.'

I raised my eyebrows, but Aite continued. 'Seriously, you've got both red blood and gold blood. That, once concocted together, creates a magical solution. It's like, well, red is #FF0000, and gold is #FFD700, so red plus gold will be something like the hue of Safety Orange.'

'You mean the color used in construction sites and traffic signs?' Artemis asked.

'Exactly,' Aite grinned.

'Wow,' I said. 'That makes me feel so much better.'

'Well, it should!' Aite declared. 'And, well, now that you're here, I probably should stop talking and get on with the kidnapping.'

 **Percy Jackson –**

'Yeah, exactly,' I agreed, not listening. 'Wait, what?'

Aite shook her head. 'Really, how moronic can you get? You really think I'll be here to help? After all the good things the Olympians have done for me? _Tartarus_ is my patron.'

'Oh.' I nodded my head and unsheathed Riptide. 'You realize we are going to kill you now, right?'

'Ha ha, hilarious. You think _you_ can beat me? You're still wearing your nightclothes.'

I looked at us. It was true – we'd been in such a rush we forgot to change. (Well, actually, that was just me.) We ignored that and brought out our weapons. Aite raised her hands. We charged, not wanting her to get the upper hand. And then we tripped.

The oldest trick in the history of Hollywood. She'd tied our shoelaces together.

Aite chortled. She closed her raised hands into fists, and a Celestial Bronze net encased us.

'You forgot me, goddess,' Butler growled. 'I never wear shoes with laces. Too much of a nuisance. Velcro straps do me just fine.'

Butler roared and charged Aite. Revitalized by the Litae's magic, he aimed a concussive blow to Aite's jawbone. Aite simply disappeared, causing Butler to fall down under the momentum of the blow. Butler quickly spun himself the right way up, and within a second, he was already standing up.

Meanwhile, we tried to throw the net from us, but even though the net wasn't held down by anything, the net wouldn't budge. Artemis tried to push out, and he found himself out of the net, a piece of the net passing through his body. Artemis looked green, but he shook himself and helped get us out.

Holly couldn't do the same thing Artemis did, probably because she was descended from Cupid, but soon, with Artemis' help, we broke free of the net. And tripped again. I groaned and fixed my shoelaces the right way.

Aite suddenly levitated into the air and pointed her palm at us. Her hand glowed, encasing us with a golden light. We fell to the ground and squinted our eyes, struggling vainly in the blinding light.

The mortals just scowled at us stupid Americans writhing on the floor to grab attention and carried on with their daily life.

Suddenly, we weren't in Canada any more. We were in some dark forest, far away from the chariot of Helios. (The sun, I mean. Sorry; Annabeth was giving me a literature lesson on the _Iliad_ the day before. I'm starting to see everything with metaphors now.)

Aite clicked her fingers, and suddenly we were chained with Celestial Bronze cuffs. Sadly, Artemis and Butler were chained with steel cuffs, so no chance of escaping now.

'I'm not going to fall for that again,' Aite said, reading my thoughts. 'Mortals, eh? Interesting. And what's this?'

She looked at Holly, whose eyes seemed to stab at Aite, who shrugged uncaringly.

'It does not matter. I should get going.'

'Why are you doing this?' I asked, and then felt embarrassed at the cliché movie line I just quoted.

Aite laughed humorlessly. 'You think I should be thanking the gods and praying to them, sending them gift cards as repayment for all the good things those twelve fools on their dumb Olympian thrones did for me? Did you even understand what they did for me? Zeus grabbed me by my hair, and _flung_ me out from the highest window down to earth! His own daughter! And just because he loved his _unborn_ son more than me! Do you think that when the gods come and 'save' you and whatnot, they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts? All they are doing is just protecting their precious reputation!

'They think that, by calling themselves the Olympians after some dumb rock that doesn't care, they are putting themselves on a higher pedestal than us so-called 'minor' deities. But _we_ are the ones who influence _them_ , not the other way around. All I had to do was implant a _thought_ on Zeus' head and I had his whole world in ruin. Morpheus influences the dreams of the Olympians, whispering to them through their dreams. Dysnomia, my sister in name, daughter of Eris, goddess of lawlessness, wreaks havoc in the Olympian family, severing their ties, enraging each other and making them break their oaths. If all of us 'minor' gods were to rebel against the Olympians, they wouldn't stand a chance. And now Tartarus has given us a reason, why should I complain? He has promised me my heart's desire, and I repay him by serving him.'

'He is lying. He doesn't care about you.' I tried to convince Aite, struggling against my bonds.

'Of course he doesn't,' Aite looked at me. 'I am no fool. But he has no use chaining me up or destroying me. I will be allowed to remain upon the earth, cheerfully spreading ruin throughout the hearts of you dumb mortals, and Tartarus will cheerfully comply.'

'So, fundamentally, you'll just be Tartarus' jester,' Artemis scorned sardonically.

Aite's face hardened. 'You may think that's funny now, but later, you _will_ regret it.' She smiled wickedly. 'But now to business.'

She pulled out a long needle like thing out of thin air. It was like those days when you had to get an immunization vaccine, but this time it was a little deadlier.

'Since the day you were born, many people have wanted to suck the blood right out of you, Perseus Jackson.' Aite smiled evilly. 'Gaea chose your blood by no accident. It's time to put that blood to the test. This won't hurt…'

'Let me guess. "…For long"?' I interrupted, completing her sentence.

'No, it will hurt for a _long_ time, Percy. This is a dracaena claw needle. It just won't hurt _me_.'

She was about to insert the needle as I mentally prayed to Poseidon, when a deafening roar caused her to drop the needle. My heart brightened as I realized we were going to be saved, but when I saw what was coming, my heart withered back down.

* * *

 **Well, that's the end of that chapter. Looks like the Litae were good guys after all. Yeah, so I'm not going to be all cliché by apologising over and over again. Let's just deal with it. Alright, so, sorry for the late update again... wait, we jut got over that. Gah, I've got to learn to keep a filter to my words.**

 **Talking about words, we just exceeded 24,000 words! And the average length of a novel is 50,000 words, so we are almost halfway there! So hang on, folks, keep those reviews and predictions coming, and for those who'd been with me for so long, thanks a lot, guys! Till next chapter!**


	9. I REALLY Need To Go To The Restroom

**If anybody was worried that I'd stopped writing, please be assured that I am not; after second term started, I'd not had any time at all, with everyone saying 'next year O/L! Study! Study! Study!', and with an Interclub Fencing Tournament everybody's like 'Practice! Practice! Practice!' So I haven't got any time. Therefore expect even less updates than my usual frequency. I only had two days to write all this. I just went Beast Mode, finished the first half, and a few weeks later, found a free day, went Beast Mode and completed the damn chapter.**

 **But what's happened on my readers' side? Only one review? C'mon, where's my crew? This is for y'all, guys! I need ye support!**

* * *

 **Rocker On:**

 **For Aite to wait**

 **A thousand years more to drink, you say?**

 **It shall be too late,**

 **For by then this world shall have away...**

 **For our heroes' efforts shake not the void**

 **(Some might say they're his attempts at play)**

 **While James Smith seems to avoid**

 **The heroes and keeps his help at bay...**

 **And so now I conclude**

 **How the heroes' fate is worrying**

 **So do not delude**

 **Yourselves and end up, uh, sorrying?**

 **Agh, who am I kidding... I'm no William Blake – I don't know the techniques he used to differentiate and honour the power of goddess Venus and planet Venus in the To The Evening Star like I'm supposed to in my homework!**

 **And so, leaving poetry at the hands of Rocker On, we upload the ninth instalment of this story a day after World No Tobacco Day. So Happy Belated World No Tobacco Day everyone and let's get on with the story. (Oh, so... you don't really wish people about it? Then why the heck is there a day if you're not celebrating it?)**

* * *

 **Holly Short –**

'What did you _do_ to that Bentley?!' Percy shrieked, waving his cuffed hands in the air.

Sure enough, the Litae's luxury SUV had come rushing in, its paint scratched off by the various thorns and branches of the forest, while its headlights were completely shattered, and various dents seemed to be slathered around the vehicle.

The Litae slowly and creepily got down from their Bentley and shuffled towards us. 'We can _heal_ it later.'

Aite growled. 'You know, all these days I've been running away from you, but now I realise how stupid I've been. You aren't even proper gods! I've been running away from you for years, but now that I look at you, you are just doddering old hags who own a vehicle that you can't even drive.'

Aite deftly picked up the dracaena claw and jabbed Percy with it. Percy grimaced in pain, and Aite put a drop of blood on her palm from the hole drilled into the claw. Suddenly, her aura intensified, and a gleaming red-bladed claymore was suddenly clasped in her hand.

Aite snarled, charging at the Litae. The Litae tried to move away, but in doing so tripped over their feet and crumpled beside a root of a tree. Aite chuckled coldly. She suddenly jabbed her blade towards one of the Lita.

I prayed hard that the Lita would escape _somehow_ , because that was the only way we'd be able to survive.

As if the gods heard my prayer, the Litae glowed, and teleported away. They brought forth their own weapons: a silver shield and a Celestial Bronze shortsword.

Aite and the Litae crashed into each other in a flurry haze of red, silver and bronze. I don't know what made Percy's blood so potent, but Aite was clearly winning the battle. Sadly, we were cuffed from our ankles and wrists, and couldn't do much but wriggle.

Then it clicked to me. I still had the ability to use magic. Sadly, I won't be able to do any lightning bolts or melt the metal, especially since No.1 was still in the moon, but I still had my own abilities, and I meant to use them.

'Hey, look!' I shouted, trying to point with my cuffed hands.

'What?' Aite spun around, startled by my yell.

'There! In front of you!'

Aite spun just in time to meet a sharpened punch of a Lita with her face. The edge of the blade carved deep into her nose, smattering her tanned face with glowing _ichor_. But suddenly, gold became Safety Orange and her face rearranged itself, the blade thrown out of her face, literally, the force disarming the shortsword from the Lita's hand. The Lita forgot that she was supposed to be old, and deftly grabbed the weapon out of the air and flicked it at Aite again in an appel while she did a passé arriere to regain her position.

'Gah! Are you so foolish as to try to attack me with such mediaeval methods?'

'Hey, it worked.' But that wasn't my plan. I'd just used the most powerful ability in my arsenal, even though Aite didn' know it. I call it the "Distract and wait for the Deus ex machina to come in the form of Artemis' ideas". Until now, it has never failed me yet.

Aite snarled at me and waved her hands. Suddenly, my shackles tightened and extended, covering my main joints, immobilising me utterly. She sneered at me and reverted her gaze back to the Litae, for whom the battle had restarted.

I didn't care about any of this. I turned my gaze towards Artemis, visualising in my head the usual meditative expression that Artemis gains when thinking that I was about to see. Instead, I received a puzzled face and a raised eyebrow.

' _What's the plan?_ ' I mouthed, being unable to talk clearly through the gag Aite had placed on me.

' _There's no plan, eejit_ ,' Artemis replied. ' _You just wrecked it_.'

 **Mulch Diggums –**

Oh, hiya, fellas! It's me, your ol' friend Mulch! In case you don't know me, here's my file:

Name: Mulch Diggums

Job: Loitering around everywhere except the Sozzled Parrot

Address: Somewhere where I can't steal.

As you can probably guess, I'm not really in my peak now.

As a 'hero of the Lower Elements', 'rewarded for supreme acts of bravery', I am now legitimate to be anywhere I want in the world, including the Upper Elements, which was why I was here. Sadly, I have the feeling that they're keeping an eye on me, and now I'm just wondering around everywhere kidding myself that I'm on a holiday.

Can't eat meat. Fine. Can't steal. Dag nab those bleedin' flutes. And now I can't even illegally come to the surface because it's actually _legal_?

I knew there's no point lamenting, so I discontinued.

 _What's the time?_ I wondered. With my tremendous luck, three people came walking by. All of them looking too high to notice me; this meant they were important people, and important people had watches.

I tried to check the time by looking at the first man's wrist, but he was walking too fast. The second guy was walking like he was doing calf raises, springing up and down like it was his seventh birthday. I struck gold with the third guy. Calm, slow pace, left arm not moving at all... only problem: he didn't have a watch.

'Gah!' I muttered, and lifted my lustrous left forearm to check the time.

 _14:00 hours_. That's two O'clock in the afternoon, when he should been here by twelve. He's late. And at this crucial time too. Some friend.

 _Friend_. _Where_ are _my friends?_ I asked myself.

Probably saving the earth from someone somewhere. And almost dying without my help.

But I swore. Not after the Berserkers. It's not my fault – it's just that I'm bound by my vows. Artemis should learn to take care of himself – I can't be there for him all the time.

Something orangish and bright caught my eye, right in my left peripheral vision. I looked. A huge explosion much like a nuclear explosion caught me paralysed. It was like a vertical forest fire. But to my amazement, none of this managed to spoil the peaceful lives of the Minnesotans of Babbitt.

'Hey,' I waved at the tall man without the watch. 'Look! Aren't people gonna do something about that?'

He looked at where I was pointing and frowned. 'Whatcha talking about?'

'You know,' I waved my hands. 'That.'

'Oh my gash!' He exclaimed sarcastically. 'It's a scary nuclear explohsion!'

'Exactly! So why aren't people panicking?'

'O, that's because it's just the aliens doing their driving test on their UFOs.' He replied dryly. 'Look, I got places to go to. Stop wasting my time.'

I just realised three things. One: This guy has no sense of humour. I mean, seriously? UFO driver's license? Two: He has no right to say that I'm wasting his time when he's got no watch on. Three: These people can't see what I'm seeing, or it's so normal that they don't care, and aliens are actually having their driver's test there.

Meh. It's not like that's something surprising for me. Probably just Artemis Fowl annoying someone and making them cast lightning bolts on him.

And now they're probably all chained or trapped, waiting for Mulch Diggums to save them.

I realised that I can't do this anymore. It wasn't right. I _had_ to do this. Forgetting all ideas of my appointment, I rushed straight through the doors of the restaurant behind, straight through the doors the men's washroom.

 **Artemis Fowl –**

My plan was simple. Use the advantage of Aite being too occupied to hear my plan, and tell Holly to use her _mesmer_ to convince Aite to release Butler.

And then Holly wrecked it by gagging herself.

Now I could only watch the battle, hoping for the victory of the Litae. I tried diversionary tactics, but when I said something, it caught the Litae's attention as well.

Sad that Aite realised that I was immune to Celestial Bronze. If only Butler could bend the metal and break out and simply destroy my friends' chains, helping the Litae vanquish Aite.

 _Wait_. Butler bending metal… why doesn't that sound too off target? My eyes widened. None of us ever thought of it before. During the Cercyon episode, Butler had bent the Celestial Bronze bars of the cage in an effort to escape! How did he do that?

'Butler!' I whispered.

'Yes, Artemis?' asked he, his eyes the only clue to his concentration and apprehension.

'Do you remember the time you were trying to escape from the cage when I was battling Cercyon?'

'Is now really the time to reminisce more memories of being trapped?'

'How did you bend the bars?'

'What bars?' He asked, confused. 'Wait… _oh_! But I… how… it never occurred to me!'

'Now's not the time to theorise about mysterious abilities, Butler. Now's the time to _use_ them.'

Butler gave a succinct nod and wriggled towards Percy.

'Whoa man! What are you doing?' Asked Percy, raising an eyebrow.

'Freeing you,' he replied tersely and started bending the Bronze bars like they were made of clay.

'Huh? Wait, _what_?! How are you doing that?' demanded Percy disbelievingly.

'I don't know.' Replied Butler simply, leaving everybody else more confused than before.

In the end, Butler had freed everyone but me, Holly and himself; apparently, his abilities did not extend to steel.

Percy and Connor took up their confiscated weapons that lay a few feet away, near the open area in which the battle took place.

Meanwhile, I and Butler just stayed down, unappreciated for our contribution. I saw Percy charge at Aite from behind, while Connor whipped his Etunu-Kadua at Aite from a distance, a technique I had not seen before, even though having been given a week's lecture about the weapon by Butler. That was two days more than the time it took for me to be fluent in all the dialects of Arabic.

Aite seemed to have a harder time to battle now, and seemed to actually be fatiguing. But then she suddenly whipped her red blade towards Percy, and Percy, caught unawares, had to change his weapon's direction in order to defend himself, but did not manage to do so. Riptide's blade grazed Aite's weapon, changing her target, but managing to connect at Percy's arm. Aite ignored the Litae's and Connor's vigorous blows, and allowed for Percy's blood to seep through the blood groove. Aite wiped the blade with her hand, and once she closed it, her energy increased exponentially – she started burning brighter, slowly achieving her true form, while she grew in height and size.

We had to avert our eyes as the Litae showed their true form as well. It would have been catastrophic if we'd seen the Litae in their full glory.

Suddenly, my eyesight blurred, and I once it cleared, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I saw three old women attacking a young lady with their brown handbags, while the lady was fighting them back with a red umbrella.

I saw Percy and Connor looking down, not looking at the scene for some reason. Wait, _Percy and Connor_? Who are they? How do I know them? And why am I here in this forest?

Then the memory came back, but my vision was still hijacked. I realised that the Mist was taking over again, with Annabeth's Anti-Mist spray finally losing its effect.

'What...?' Stuttered Butler, and I realised that he was facing the same problem.

'The Anti-Mist spray wore off.' I replied.

As Butler nodded in understanding, I realised that I was wrong in thinking that Butler might be a legacy of some god of strength, seeing that he was still victim to the Mist.

I filed that information for later research and looked round at our current situation, albeit unable to unveil the riddling symbols that depicted and replaced the real situation.

Aite suddenly slashed out at the Litae, and they somehow got blasted away, leaving a clear area of three-metre radius from Aite, and I realised that Aite must have made a dispelling force field.

'Gah!' She snarled. 'I have more important things to do.'

She motioned as if to disappear away, but the Litae cast a force field to stop her. The force field glistened green, creating the impression that it was a very large soap bubble. That was glowing green and gave odd crackles of electricity.

 _Wait, I can see that!_ I realised. I presume it's just because I'm used to seeing them, with my various adventures with time stops.

'Percy!' Connor yelled. 'Now!'

The duo charged at Aite from her sides, Percy using his wristwatch shield to defend himself from Aite's strikes, while Connor was whizzing his weapon around, turning himself into a makeshift tornado, deflecting Aite's energy blasts. Something I could see due to having frequently seen Neutrino blasts – and having been the target sometimes as well.

Aite looked at them both and extended her palms towards them. Her hands went hazy. I blinked and saw two flamethrowers on each hand, connected to a fuel tank strapped onto Aite's back. I shook my head. Since when was I infatuated with World War II so much to see something like this?

Then I realised that this trick was actually doing me a favour, since neither Percy nor Connor could see it.

'She's going to cast fire on you!' I yelled at them.

Connor rolled forwards, dodging the green flames. _Most probably because of added boric acid to the fuel_ , the Mist-infected part of my consciousness told me.

Percy didn't have enough time to stop his momentum, and knew that he'd land on the edge of his shield if he tried to roll, so he just kept charging, using his shield to deflect the flames. His demigod powers protected him from the heat as well, and soon both of them were at Aite's sides. Percy jabbed deftly at Aite's flank, while Connor, still on the ground, skilfully whipped his Etunu-Kadua at Aite's feet, trying to trip her.

Aite jumped to avoid Connor's strike, and his strike hit Percy's feet instead, causing him to yell in pain and miss his target.

'Sorry, man,' Connor said contritely, whipping his weapon back for another strike, this time aimed at Aite's head.

While all this was happening, one of the Litae had crept in from behind Aite, and she jabbed at Aite's lower back with her umbrella (ugh; What is wrong with this Mist? It could have just shown the dagger). Ichor spurted from Aite's back, and she screamed as she collapsed onto the ground. Aite's glow started to dissipate, and, Percy pointed his blade at Aite's neck.

I couldn't believe that the battle was over. Actually, I would be able to believe that, but not that it ended with our victory.

'Alright, first question.' Percy said, bringing the edge of his blade closer to Aite. 'What's this about kidnapping us?'

'Why don't you let the dark lord tell you that himself?'

Aite clicked her fingers, creating a phial. She grabbed Percy's foot and squeezed, making Percy fall and increase his blood flow. She filled her phial with blood whilst taking some for herself as well. Now without any blade threatening her neck, she caused massive explosion (I thought I saw a stick of dynamite – I really need that Anti-Mist spray). Percy, Connor and the Litae were thrown backwards, as Aite used the power of the explosion to fly upwards. As she levitated upwards, she started to heal, and the umbrella ejected out of her, making a slurping noise as golden blood rained on us.

'Meanwhile, let's presume to where we left off.' Aite frowned. 'What was that again? Oh, that's right – killing you.'

'Wait!' Percy shouted, grimacing in pain as his foot swelled. 'I have a different question. Why my blood?'

Aite chuckled. 'You can ask the Dark Lord when he kills you.'

She motioned with her hands as if to cast some spell, but was interrupted.

'Wait, are you killing them or is Tartarus killing them?' A confused voice sounded a few metres to my right. 'Also, did you get copyright permission from J. K. Rowling and J. R. R. Tolkien before calling Tartarus the Dark Lord?'

I whipped my head in direction of the familiar voice. Sure enough, a hairy figure wearing a suit and tie that did not suit him at all was standing near an enormous hole in Wonder Woman pose bearing tombstone teeth and the odorous face of Mulch Diggums.

 **Mulch Diggums –**

What the people of Babbitt don't know – and would rather not – is that every restaurant's men's washroom was connected together, and to my other secret hideouts; now that I can't illegally live in a hotel room or buy an apartment.

I rushed inside the restroom, into a cubicle and, well did something super secret that I can't tell my fans and entered my underworld realm. Down here, I felt more at peace than I've ever felt, away from all the LEP cameras and the paparazzi. Well, when I get paparazzi.

Down under, I could sense every tremor in the earth with my beard hair, and it could even trace magical residue. I sensed Holly and something that was giving slow ripples in the ground to my right. I nimbly moved to the area.

Suddenly, my internal radar pointed upwards, and I realised that I was right beneath them. I paced away to one of my holes. I've dug many hidey-holes like these all over the forest – it provides me with a clear pathway to my hunting ground.

I got myself up just enough to see what was going on. Sure enough, everybody was on the floor, unable to save themselves, while the bad guy person was levitating and giving them her evil monologue.

Now I was following with this quite well until she confused me.

'Wait, are you killing them or is Tartarus killing them?' I asked, confused. 'Also, did you get copyright permission from J. K. Rowling and J. R. R. Tolkien before calling Tartarus the Dark Lord?'

The levitating goddess looked at me and narrowed her irritated brown eyes, and I realised that I should've raised my hand first.

I quickly went back down, and used a secret dwarf technique to collapse the ground in the area where my friends and their grandparents were standing.

Soon, I heard the usual " _where did they go?_ " question from the bad guy person and the terrified screams of awe as my friends collapsed into my hideout.

'W-What happened?' Percy asked, just as I predicted.

'It's Mulch,' said Artemis, brushing off the dirt off his suit. I didn't predict that, but I did predict him wearing a suit.

'Well, Mulch? Go on!' Holly punched me in the shoulder.

'Your punches don't hurt me anymore, Holly. I came prepared.' I showed her the makeshift spaulders I'd worn on my muscular deltoids.

'Glad to see you dealt with it,' Holly said, while punching below my shoulder.

Connor laughed. 'Geddit? Dealt? Like Mulch _dealt_ with the shoulders things, and shoulders are called delts? You know, like, for deltoid?' Connor grinned. 'Okay, I'll shut up.'

'Mulch, lead the way already. We can't afford to waste time.' Artemis said curtly.

'Wow, just like that?' I asked. 'No thank you?'

'Oh, thank you for saving us, Mulch! Let's not let it all go to waste by just standing here talking about trivial matters till Aite comes and captures all of us again, shall we?'

Right on cue, I sensed vibrations atop us as the bad guy person – Aite, I assume – attacked the earth, digging down to capture us.

'Right you are, Mud Boy.'

We scrambled on towards the restroom, and god Shammy knows, I really needed to use it.

* * *

 **Don't expect any fast updates, but please review, and try to capture each point, so that I can improve my style, so even if I update this late, at least I'll make it worth it. I welcome criticism, but keep it clean, and making sure you read my next chapter when it gets uploaded next century!**

 **Hope you enjoyed this one – see ya next chapter.**


	10. Wasabi

**Due, to the lateness of my updates (the last time I updated was in June-that's five months inactive), many have presumed that I'd stopped. I even received a review from Rocker On asking whether the updates were gone forever. Please rest assured that I will, however slowly, complete this story. I know these late updates make you guys forget the story, and it's really cumbersome, and I'm really sorry about that. It's just that now we have to study the whole year for exams, even in the holidays, and it'll be even worse next year, and I come home really late, and when I do computer access is limited because I have to wait for my mom to come home. Really sorry guys.**

 **Rocker On: Gosh, I _am_ out of my wits. Please stop. Ha ha, just kidding. Thou rhymeth valorously. I keep to my claim: you should write. And red and white wine seems to actually be good for you in moderation, apparently. Not that I'm telling you to drink :D. And Mulch tells me that hypocrisy is a sign of ingenuity. And I don't know why Artemis saw that, but I'd rather not ask. And hey, let Sarite be... I know from personal experience how hard it is to get online. An update and a review will come... I'll be a hypocrite if I'm to ask Sarite about her inactivity. And about the _mesmer..._ Hmm... well, the _mesmer_ isn't like other spells, and Piper was able to charmspeak Gaea, and charmspeak is like the _mesmer_ , so I guess it would still work.**

 **Rosycat: Thanks! Actually, the scene I depicted with Mulch and the watches is one I thought of when I was doing the same thing, but I actually didn't have a watch on at the time :).**

 **Okay, you guys are already mad at me, so instead of just standing here getting hit with rotten tomatoes, let's rush into the next chapter!**

* * *

 **Connor Stoll –**

While I'd expected Mulch to get us somewhere aboveground since he'd collapsed his base, I didn't expect to appear from a toilet cubicle. Like, Mulch just opened this wooden door and unlatched…

[Ouch! Oh… right. Sorry, Mulch.]

Yeah, so I can't really go into detail, because it's supposed to be Mulch's secret… So let's forget about that bit and get on with what happened next.

Not that I have any pleasure in doing so.

'Quickly, run!' Mulch shouted, pushing us away from the cubicle, even though we'd already escaped from the danger.

'Why? We've escaped from the danger.' Percy said bemusedly, as we went out of the cubicle.

'Oh no,' Butler shook his head vehemently. 'The dangers just started. Run!'

Everyone's eyes widened as they rushed to the exit while Mulch locked him inside the cubicle.

'Huh? I don't get it.' And then I realized. 'Oh no, no, no.'

I rushed to join the others, but the earthquakes had already started. A tremor reached my feet, and I tripped. Biological gas, being denser than normal air, rests lower in the atmosphere. Putrid gas reached my nasal cavity, as I started to wish I didn't cure my sinusitis last week.

My body felt drained of energy, but I finally got on my wobbly legs and reached the sweet heavens lying _outside_ the restroom.

A few seconds after we'd recovered ourselves, the restroom door opened.

Mulch appeared, beaming like he'd just finished his morning jog. 'There's a reason I used restrooms as entrances to my underground subway. You know how much mud calories you consume to dig just one pathway?'

'Right… and why are you wearing a suit?' Holly asked, still grimacing like she'd smelled someone's flatulence – which she unfortunately had.

'You think I want to?' Mulch looked at his suit, which miraculously did not seem to have been dirtied by our underground journey. 'It's because I'm up in the Upper Elements now, and I have an appointment. Had, I mean.'

'But– a suit?' Holly sputtered as we walked out.

'It's an important appointment.'

'With whom?'

'Oh, you know. Some businessperson.'

'Business _person_? Not _man_? Are you working for Carla Frazetti again?' Artemis asked, his sharp eyes glistening.

'No – it's just some human – who doesn't know I'm a dwarf, obviously – who hung out with me for a while and he suddenly offered a deal, and we were supposed to talk about it in this here restaurant.'

'What sort of deal?' Holly asked, frowning.

'Oh, nothing illegal.'

'You're avoiding the question.' Holly grabbed Mulch's elbow, which I later learned was a move equal to a chokehold, since the dwarf elbow has an entire system of nerve points capable of different varieties of pain.

'He's some technology dude who'd heard of a talented blacksmith prodigy with PhDs in Engineering and Mining Geology…'

I face palmed. 'Wow. Don't tell me…'

Mulch grinned. 'And so apparently this guy was working on some alloy, supposed to be four times harder than some alloy four times harder than titanium…'

'Ti3Au; an alloy made of titanium and gold.' Artemis interjected. 'Discovered in June, 2016, according to my memory.'

'Yeah, that. Probably. Anyway, this guy wanted to talk to me about something related to isotopes and gravitational claptrap, and since obviously didn't understand what in hell the guy was saying, I just looked at the pictures in his notes and told him to burn the shiny blackish orange thing with the right consistency with the grayish powdery sand, and that then the unwanted stuff would get vaporized without having to waste so much money.'

'What?' Artemis asked, perplexed.

'Well, I don't know! I don't have PhDs in geology! I don't know what the hell those things are called; I just knew what to do because that's a process close to something that happens in our digestive system.'

'Aah…' We all took one step back.

'Yeah, so this guy was all like "your talented is wasted here" and "wow, give me your autograph", yadda-yadda, and told me that I could work for him, but I, being the modest guy I am, didn't jump to it right then, and to discuss all the fees, and time, and quantities, and all that business stuff, he told me to come here!'

'And he didn't.' Percy summed up.

'Well, obviously! I would've called this guy, but he didn't give me his number. He only gave me his darned name, and jolly good that'll do when his name's James Smith!'

'Did you just say James Smith?!' Holly asked, eyes widened.

'Oh do you know him?' Mulch asked sarcastically. 'It's probably him, since it's quite a rare name.

'Hey, don't punch me!'

I frowned. 'Could it be him?'

'I would say it's a coincidence, but with the circumstances…' Artemis frowned. 'But what would he want with the likes of you?'

'Hey! I'm charismatic person, okay!'

Holly twisted her face in a grimace. 'Right. Anyways, how about we ask him instead?'

 **Percy Jackson –**

'What do you mean?' I asked.

'We'll just send an IM, and the chains will just barge in and or patron, being the insensitive conversation tapper he is, he'll just tap into the conversation.' Holly answered. 'Simple.'

Butler frowned. 'Hmm… Problem. Where are the chains?'

Our eyes widened. 'What?!' I exclaimed.

We looked around. The chains were not there.

'Where did the chains go?' I asked.

'Because I know the answer, right?' Artemis replied sarcastically.

Holly looked at him. 'You don't?'

Artemis glared. 'It's probably near the Niagara, before we were teleported here.'

'Where are we, anyway?' Connor asked.

'Minnesota.'

'Oh, wow.' Holly facepalmed. ' _Now_ we are here.'

Suddenly I heard a draining noise. I pitied the guy who had to do such a big, ehm, deposit for the flushing to be heard outside. Then the door opened, and the chains, glowing with dwarven excreta, exited.

'Gross!' Connor grimaced. 'I guess it teleported with us. And by the looks of it, Mulch's secret bathroom passages aren't as secret as we thought.'

Holly nodded. 'And now I don't feel like using the chains.'

'It's your stuff…' I looked at Mulch pointedly.

'Ah, you're such _girls_.' Mulch shook his head. He motioned towards the chains, but the chains decided to do it itself. It shook itself hard, sending blobs of product everywhere. We all ducked, except for Artemis, whose reflexes were still awry. Amazingly, however, Artemis was unscathed.

After a few unpleasant minutes, we set up the Iris message.

'Who're we gonna call?' Connor asked.

'I dunno,' Holly shrugged. 'It's not like it matters.'

'Let us call Camp Half-Blood anyway. They should know the particulars of the situation.' Artemis replied.

'Camp it is.' I threw a coin into the rainbow. 'O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me the Big House.'

Suddenly the rainbows colored merged together and created a picture. But not what I expected. Instead of the Chiron's bronze shielded office, with the only electronics within the camp, or the familiar rec room with chairs around the ping-pong table, our eyes were greeted with something not even remotely similar.

'Why am I seeing grass?' Holly asked, pointing at the gigantic rectangle of turf within the rainbow.

'Hey, isn't this the Michigan Stadium?' Connor asked.

'Nicknamed "The Big House",' Artemis agreed.

'Oh.' I flipped another coin. 'Show me the most populated area of the building named 'The Big House' in Camp Half Blood located in Long Island, New York.'

The picture shimmered and changed the picture, as if we were changing channels on TV. This time we were greeted with the living room of the Big House, containing only Seymour, the living leopard head.

'I guess that's the most populated place in the Big House at this time.'

'Oh…' I facepalmed. 'Right. Today is capture-the-flag day.'

Holly looked at me. 'They have time to play capture-the-flag?'

'Well, what else are they supposed to do till we finish everything?'

'Umm…' Holly shook her head. 'Anyway, it doesn't really matter. The only reason we called was to be intercepted anyway.'

We looked expectantly at the chains. With our luck, it did not move.

'Oh, gods.' Connor groaned. 'What are we going to do now? We can't just wait here in the roads.'

Artemis frowned, his mental gears visibly turning. 'Mulch could carry the chains, and Percy, you can transport the mist so that the rainbow can be carried. Hopefully, this will not disrupt the Iris message.'

'Woah, woah,' Mulch raised his grimy palms. 'I know I just saved your sorry butts _again_ , but that does not mean that I'm part of the _gang_ , m'kay?'

'You aren't. You're just our little servant boy.' Butler shoved Mulch forward, and Mulch begrudgingly shouldered the chains and followed us.

'So, we seem to have decided where we are going.' Artemis said, pointedly.

We stopped moving.

'Hey, why don't we just get back in the restaurant?' Mulch opined.

I shrugged. 'Yeah, okay.'

So we grumbled back to the restaurant. I didn't care to look at the name. It if had food, I'm happy.

After we entered and sat at a table, I set the Iris message on the table. Still, nothing happened. Seymour continued to try to leap at the Snausage lying on the food packed table.

'Okay, so since we aren't making any progress here, it would be wise to make a plan on what to do.' Artemis proposed.

'Artemis Fowl, open for discussion?' Holly asked, raising an eyebrow.

'This is a field I am not very familiar with, and we are very low on data.' Artemis replied, irritated. 'I would like to gather all the information I can.'

'Could we order something in the meantime? It's past three, and we haven't had anything for lunch.' I pled.

'I don't see why not.' Holly motioned to the waiter. 'Could we see a menu?'

Soon each of us was riffling through the menu. 'It's a _sushi_ restaurant?!' Holly cried.

'Didn't you see the name?' Mulch asked as he gave his order of octopus and king crab sashimi and two servings of prawns.

'Perfect,' Artemis said, and I could see his smile at being able to order with complex words.

' _Not_ perfect! I'm vegetarian!'

'There are vegan choices. Or you could just have wasabi.' I joked.

'That's vegetarian?'

'Um… yeah…'

'Oh, alright then.' Holly sighed, relieved, as she gave the order of two scoops of wasabi and warm spring water to a very confused waiter.

'Uh, Holly…' I stopped at the mischievous grin of Connor. 'Never mind. So, we know that, well, uh, what do we know?'

'That our mysterious patron wants Mulch to join us, and that we are going to meet Apollo, most probably – _lest the sun burns_. We also know that there's something special about Percy's blood – the suspicion was already there when Gaea refused Nico's and Jason's blood in exchange of Percy's. Gaea wanted Percy's and Annabeth's blood so that she could wake up, and Tartarus is already awake, so maybe he wants it to extend his claim of control towards the Earth. He already has some power over the Earth, with which he tortured Percy and destroyed the dracaenae.' Artemis disclosed.

'Hmm… yeah, okay, so what do we do about it?' Connor asked. He quickly added, 'I mean, we were supposed to move towards the West, and we're in Minnesota, but that's kind of Northwest, isn't it? It's almost straight North rather than West. I'm not sure we're going in the right direction.'

'Hmm… you are right. The angle from New York to Niagara Falls is greater than 315 degrees, which is the angle it would have to be in to be Northwest. Yet the chains led us in this direction.' Artemis' eyes widened. 'Wasn't it actually trailing behind us? We were the ones guiding ourselves using Google Maps, not using the chains!'

'So where _is_ the right location?' I wondered aloud.

'Somewhere across the East, I suppose.' Holly proposed. 'But that's not the question. If we have been going on the wrong direction, then why did our patron talk about the Litae's new mode of transportation and about Aite searching for sacred bloods in the prophecy?'

'Hmm…' Artemis frowned as the connections whizzed through his brain. 'Well, that's a talk for later. Chiron's coming.'

We looked at the portal. Chiron was trotting to the table. His took the snausage and fed it to Seymour, who gulped on it eagerly. Chiron's eyes glanced around when his gaze fell upon us.

'Ah, you're here. So, how goes the journey?' Chiron knitted his eyebows. 'Wait. Where are you?'

'Hey, we got hungry! What do you want us to do, camp in the forest roasting beetles for dinner?' I complained.

'Never mind. Anyway, we got a–' The chains jumped on the table and disappeared into the portal. The image pixilated and blurred until all we could see was a blue background with a golden glow. Then, as if he were a digital hologram, "James Smith" appeared.

 **Connor Stoll –**

I groaned. 'You have such perfect timing, it's like you are doing it on purpose.'

'Oh, I am!' He grinned. 'I've programmed the chains to transmit at exactly 15:15 hours."

His shades had a golden glow, as if the shades were covering his eyes from the world, not vice versa. This eerily reminded me of Percy's description of Ares, but his laidback attitude made him look more like someone I'd want to punch that someone I should run away from.

'So, I guess the game's good, seeing where you are. So, you deciphered the code?'

'What code?'

'Um, the code in the painting?' His grin flipped vertically.

'What painting? Unless this is some fancy metaphor, all we saw was an egomaniacal goddess stealing Percy's blood, three weird grannies, a Bentley Bentayga something and a great view of the Niagara Falls.' Holly said, raising an eyebrow.

'Niagara Falls…? Wait, _where_ are you?' James asked, his eyes narrowed, scrutinizing.

'Yeah, we messed up. We're in Minnesota.'

'Minne– How the hell did you get there?' James exclaimed. 'All I said was to get to the ' _Land of Hesperus_ ', the famous poem in the Metropolitan Museum of Art!'

'The _Met_ Museum? That's in Manhattan!' Percy facepalmed. 'The hell? We had a three hour drive, and we went to another state?'

'Crossing another country.' I agreed.

'What country did you cross?' James Smith frowned.

'Canada, almost named as Vesperia.' Artemis answered.

'See, this is what happens when you think too hard. I mean, haven't you heard of the ' _Land of Hesperus_ '? Where have you been?'

Butler took out his phone. 'Says here that there's no such poem.'

James Smith frowned. 'But- But- This was _famous_ in the Golden Ages!'

'The _Golden Ages_?' I asked. 'You nuts? You think something in the Golden Ages would survive today?'

'Oh.' James frowned. 'Hmm… Well, the next best thing is Albrecht D _ü_ rer's woodcut star map. It'll have a few minor deviations, but hopefully it'll have the same code I inscribed a few eons ago.'

'And where is this?' Percy asked, rubbing his arm.

'The Met Museum.'

I groaned. 'So we anyway have to go back to Manhattan. Perfect. Can you at least tell us why? And what's this code?'

'Okay, so Albrecht D _ürer made two star maps depicting the Northern and Southern hemispheres in the 16_ _th_ _century. I have inscribed a secret code into those types of works, one which can only be seen by the ones of sacred bloods. By your description, I can see that you've had a encounter with Aite, so you know what I mean. In the '_ _Land of Hesperus_ _'_ _poem, there's a picture, that will guide you on how to solve the code, but since the star map isn't so, I'll tell you what it means. Basically, I've given the responsibility of the code to the_ _Panotii_ _tribe, so all you have to do is find them. It shouldn't be too hard–they're quite visible.' James circled his ears, which I deciphered to mean that he's nuts, to which I agree._

 _Mulch jumped in. 'Okay, so why did you want me work for you, and why didn't you show up in the appointment?'_

 _'_ _Why would I have an appointment with you?'_

 _Mulch coughed. 'You may know me as the Welsh blacksmith prodigy Adda Mudd.'_

 _'_ _No… I know you as Mulch Diggums.' James said, frowning. 'Is this a game? Like Guess Who or something?'_

'Okay, it isn't him. It's some other dude using the same impersonation as him.'

'I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyway, make sure the _Panotii_ don't decipher code realizing what it is. The language in that code follows the same grammatical sequence as English, so just decipher the code word by word, in random order.'

With that he transformed into a golden orb of light, and the portal closed, leaving a big mess in the form of the chains on the table.

'Gah, get outta here,' I ordered the chains. It begrudgingly got down. Fortunately, there were no damages.

'Hey, what's wrong with this guy?' I asked. 'I mean, he explained everything concisely and clearly! He wasn't vague at all! I think he should meet a doctor.'

Holly nodded. 'It's definitely raining today.' She turned to Artemis. 'So, who are these _Panotii_ people?"

"Panotii are a legendary race described by Pliny the Elder in his book _Naturalis Historia_ to have extra long ears coming down to their feet. They were said to live in islands called the "All-Ears Islands" off Scythia. According to Pliny–'

Artemis was interrupted by Percy's groan. He clutched his arm, which had a purple patch, and had turned the neighboring veins to black. With another groan that spat blood out of his mouth, Percy collapsed.

* * *

 **Looks like Aite was right: it's going to hurt long for Percy. What's going to happen next? You'll have a good time figuring it out, because the next chapter's going to take a _loooooong_ time to publish. I'll try to complete within this year, though. I'd actually planned to finish the story within a year... now I'm laughing at myself. :D**


	11. Ear, 'ear!

**As promised, we've uploaded the eleventh chapter right before the deadline. I really wanted to surprise you guys by uploading it extra early, but my early predictions were right: I will not get enough time to upload chapters. So I'm not even going to give myself a deadline, because I can't prioritise this any more. Really sorry, guys, I hope you'll still be there when I come back with the next chapter** — **even I thought we'd be able to finish the story this year. And if my writing style has changed and dropped, I'm sorry for that—my writing and reading has seen a great decline these days.**

 **Rocker On: Yeah, no. Fortunately, these panotii are urbanised. To a certain extent, rather. And about Mulch, well, you know what they say, " _Nothing is as it smells_ ". Or is it 'seems'? Nah, I'm pretty sure it's 'smells'. And, nah, James wasn't really making it easy for them. He was just stating facts that they'd figure out sooner or later anyway, so it _looked_ like he was helping them. You'll see as you read on.**

* * *

 **Domovoi Butler–**

We were taken aback by Percy's sudden seizure. I removed anything dangerous, like the plates, the knives and glass. The table posed a threat as well, but I needn't have acted, because suddenly, Percy stopped.

'Are you okay?' Holly asked.

Percy didn't answer. His body, which was stiff from the fit, now slumped onto me. He didn't move.

'Percy?' Connor asked, frightfully. 'Is he… is he…'

I checked the pulse on his carotid artery. 'He's alive. The pulse on his wrist is weak, though, but the bicep pulse is slow but strong. I don't understand it. Is it a side effect of the poisoning? I need that anti-Mist spray thing.'

Artemis quickly handed me the spray from Percy's bag. I grabbed it and sprayed it all across my face. I started to see the great purple inflammation on Percy's arm, so vibrant it seemed as if someone had painted it. Disgusted, I involuntarily jerked away, but my bodyguard training kept me in one place.

Holly sprayed herself too. She splayed her hands, probing with her magic. Artemis jerked as his immune system tried t fight off the intruder, but he was already weak from the dracaena sting. Holly frowned.

'I don't get it. Percy's body seems to be sleeping, but there's something in his arm that I can't discern.'

'We need to get this guy help.' Mulch nodded with his worldly wisdom.

Connor turned to give him a withering reply, but then Percy groaned. Our eyes turned back to Percy. His eyes fluttered, and he woke up.

'Huh? What happened?' He asked weakly. 'Hey, what the literal Hades?! What's that?'

Percy seemed to have the same reaction to his arm that we did. He shook himself. 'Seriously, _what_ happened?'

'You apparently had a seizure. I would assume that it was because of that injection you got from Aite.'

Percy frowned. 'Oh, yeah. It still hurts like hell. But I've had dracaena injuries before. How is this different?'

I noticed that the whole restaurant was looking at us. 'Nothing to see here,' I said loudly.

The people slowly turned back, but I could sense their reluctance to do so. But before we could turn back to Percy, a waiter came to serve us. We acted as normally as we could – for one mountain sized man, one vampire complexioned teenager, one three-foot tall lady, one boy who seemed to be in obvious pain, one boy who looked like he just stole your wallet, and an obnoxious stinky toddler.

While we ate our food – and Holly kept drinking water, having already finished her meal, ha ha – we asked Percy how he was feeling.

'Like I said, it hurts like hell, and I've been there, but I don't know why. I've had many injuring due to dracaena attacks, and none of them sent a reaction like this.'

'I realise that this is quite inappropriate, but Percy is fine now. We don't know whether this will pop up again, but we can't afford to spend time on treatment. Our patron, for the first time, gave us clear instructions, and since there's nothing to plan on, we should journey on as fast as possible. We have been given a clear route and something with the likeness of GPS, and as such, we should, to use the colloquial phrase, "get going", instead of wasting time like this. For the time being, I think Percy could suffice from whatever is in the first aid bag."

I was used to Artemis's practicality, but I knew to expect nothing from the others than disbelieving glares at his unsympathetic ratiocination. Yet the look that Percy gave Artemis was only gladness. I frowned, then I realised that Artemis was the only one who had actually cheered Percy up.

'Yeah, we have one here,' Percy said, motioning to his bag. 'But it mainly just has some ambrosia and a bottle of nectar. That's better than nothing, I guess.'

He poured some nectar into his glass of water and drank it. His face lighted up for a moment, but after he reached the end, his skin started to glow.

'I think that's enough,' Percy said, as he looked at the glow fade away. 'Anyway, it can't be too serious. I guess since we're all done eating, we should probably get going.'

'But I didn't even have dessert!' Mulch whined.

We all looked at him.

'I think your fourth main course can count as the dessert.'

 **Percy Jackson –**

I tried to act nonchalant, but I think it was kind of obvious that I was bothered. And I had good reason to be.

I mean, gods. Dracaenae are the easy ones. I faced like thousands of them at the war with Kronos. Even their queen, Sess, wasn't a big deal. Their champion wasn't even one of them. But now I've been seriously injured by one of their claws? What the _actual_ Hades?

'…compass is fine. Maybe he wanted us to find the _panotii_ first? To heal Percy, probably?'

'What?' I looked up, hearing my name.

'Does it really hurt that much?' Holly asked, concerned.

'No, no, I was just thinking. ADHD. Sorry.' I looked at Butler's phone. 'But what were you guys saying about a compass?'

'The chains are taking us west instead of southeast.' Artemis explained. 'We're trying to figure out why.'

I looked around us. 'We're moving out of the town, apparently. I'd say it's going to take us a very long time. How about we just go by taxi?'

'When we don't know the location?' Holly asked, skeptical.

Artemis creased his forehead thoughtfully. 'What if we use the chains as a compass?'

We looked at Artemis, incredulous, but then I realized that it wasn't that outlandish idea.

'That's actually not that bad an idea! Only, let's use the Grey Sisters, because I don't know how to explain this to a mortal driver.'

'Uh, yeah. Have you met them?' I asked.

'No choice. Flip the coin.'

I did the same damned mumbo-jumbo I saw Annabeth doing when we were taking Tyson to camp, and soon, a billowing smoke rushed towards us. The smoke liquefied until it had the shape of a normal taxi, but the vehicle's figure shimmered like smoke, as if it hadn't turned completely solid. The words "GRAY SISTERS" were marked in bold white on the door.

The driver side window lowered, revealing a toothless, wrinkled lady with an empty eye socket, whom I distinctly remembered as Anger. 'You're lucky, boy! If we hadn't had that special ride, you'd have been out of service area! Where you goin'?'

They sounded different from my previous excursion. 'Five to wherever the chains point you to.'

'You take orders from a seatbelt?' Another stringy haired head popped up, baring one sharp tooth.

Knocking Wasp aside, Tempest's head gaped at us. 'No, you fool! It's his jailer! They're the chosen ones! It's the secret location they're seeking!'

At this point the other two grey sisters grabbed hold of Tempest's head and pushed her down. Scraggly hair flew as the trio scrambled, trying to cover Tempest's mouth.

'Hey, hey! We already know the secret location!' I yelled, waving my arms. 'At least, we're going there. So can you stop?'

The grey sisters grinned mischievously. 'Oh, of course you do… How many…?'

'Five to wherever we are supposed to go.'

'We don't take their kind!' Wasp rasped, sniffing at us. 'No mortals policy!'

'Agh, do you have this conversation with everyone?!' I facepalmed. 'Double fare!'

'Done!' They shrieked.

We got in. I didn't make the same mistake again. Connor, Artemis and I put on the single seatbelt.

An automated voice rang. 'Welcome to the Gray Sisters Express! Make sure you review your ride at .olym! Please put on your helmet, and buckle up!'

 _Helmet?_ I wondered. Since when did we have to wear helmets? I didn't know why we had to wear a helmet when we already had a chain to buckle up with, but I knew better than to not wear it, so when something like a black coconut shell protruded from the ceiling, I took it and placed it on my head.

I grabbed hold of the seatbelt, but when I tugged it around me and locked it in, our chains were looking at me in a weird way. I looked down at the black chain around my waist, and then at the chains below the seat beside me, which seemed to be doing some sort of dance, like a snake mating ritual. I looked at my chained waist again.

'Oh, for Olympus's sake.'

 **Holly Short –**

The instructions told us to buckle up, but I couldn't see any seatbelts. I was about to ask when I saw Percy, Connor and Artemis literally chain themselves.

Suddenly, I was thrown to the back of my seat, my head whamming a few inches below the head restraint. The car accelerated to what seemed like two hundred kilometres per hour within five seconds. I fumbled for the seatbelt, and put it on, and put on my head just in time for the sudden break when the car swerved to avoid a bus. I would've been thrown forward if it wasn't for the seatbelts. As it was, the chains uncomfortably dug into my skin as I was pushed forward into the chains.

Speaking of chains, our patron's chains seemed to be dancing again, focused on the chains Percy was using as a seatbelt. Oh, D'arvit – the chains saw Percy as a potential competitor. I shook my head – there were weirder things that I should be concentrating on.

'Don't know the destination! They get worse and worse each day!' Anger complained.

'We thought you'll know what our destination is, being very wise and all.'

'Oh, of course! We are the wisest! We know everything! Every street in India!' Wasp cried.

'And all the shapes of the states! The average rainfall in Berlin each day this year, too!'

'Right, right,' I cut in, thinking that they'd probably be looking at the road with their one eye when they were travelling at supersonic. 'So, where _are_ we going?'

'Oh, no, no, no! The second to last time we gave away a secret location, we lost our eye! And the last time, we almost lost it again!' Tempest screeched.

'Well, that's an improvement! This time, you won't lose it at all!'

'How do we know that you aren't going to throw our eyes out?'

'Because we're already _going_ to that secret location?'

'Oh, that one! We're already there – it's in Embarrass, the secret dwelling of the panotii.'

'That's… embarrassing,' I frowned. 'That's really the name of the place?'

'Says so in Google maps.' Butler said, checking his phone.

We got off, while Percy paid the gray sisters with some gold coins, which resulted in the three sisters scrambling for the tooth to bite the coin.

The moment Percy got off, the car vanished into smoke, leaving a cartoonish trace where the car had been. We looked around, checking for any mysterious creatures, but it was just a normal township. I looked around to ask, but the grey sisters had vanished from view.

'What do we do now?' I asked.

We looked at the chains, which had wilted into the ground.

'It's OK, pal,' Connor patted the top link of the chains. 'You'll find another one.'

'I think our purpose here is quite evident, since the grey sisters told us that this is the secret abode of the panotii.' Artemis said wisely. 'We had better just walk around in search of them. It won't be too difficult to prick their ears and get their attention.'

'Artemis agreeing to a walk?' I asked, raising an eyebrow. 'Well, that's not something we see every day.'

'Wait, let's not make past mistakes again. Let the chains find them for us.' Butler said.

'Close call.' I moved sideways to let the chains pass. Was this what it it's like to be a Greek god? Everything is done for you, and if you try to do something yourself, you'll mess things up? That kinda sucks.

We'd turned right from a crossroads, and the environment didn't seem to match. Everything was exactly the same, but it felt eerily much more different. The buildings became less common, and we stopped at a small house, and it was clear from the quality of the walls and the asbestos roof.

Then, in front of our eyes, the building shimmered, and turned into a colossal tower, with gates like those old day castles, and the gigantic grey walls that materialised around the tower reinforced the picture.

'Well, 'ear we are.' Connor proclaimed, and grinned, waiting for our laughs.

They didn't come, by the way.

 **Artemis Fowl –**

For a moment, we just stood there, and then we realised that the panotii hadn't been notified of our arrival, nor had we made an appointment. First we knocked slowly on the gates politely, thinking that the panotii won't need too much of a sound, but we got no response. We started banging on the door, and by we, obviously I mean them, while I kept my dignity behind them.

While they tried to get the panotii's attention, I observed their fortress. The gates were made of a rich dark wood, reinforced which steel. Everything else was made of a shiny black rock, while the walls took a much duller color. The tower stretched up several metres, and there was a moderately large brass bell hanging from a hole on the top of the tower, almost invisible from the great height of the tower.

I looked back at my friends, who seemed to be testing various angles to bang their knuckles with. I looked at the wood carefully. _Hmm… those doors must be more than a foot thick_. I wonder how sore my friends' knuckles would be afterward. I was about to suggest that someone throw something at the bell somehow, when I noticed a thick brown rope hanging all the way from the bell like Rapunzel's hair next to the door.

I coughed. 'Perhaps you'd like to use the bell.' I eyed pointedly at the brass bell and the length hanging down from the contraption fixed to the clapper.

'Oh' was all they said, and they pulled the rope, producing a clear bass note, which repeated when Butler released the rope.

I chuckled. I loved how it looked as if I'd known that there was a bell all along, when I'd only noticed it by chance.

Not that all my genius is like that, of course. But a little chance over intelligence doesn't hurt now and then.

We heard a small commotion, and then silence. We waited for a while, and then a small door next to the gates that I hadn't noticed opened. A panotii enrobed in blue and holding a thin, dark staff appeared.

I looked closely at the panotii. True to the story, their ears were large. This one's ears dropped down to his waist, and they were at least a foot broad from front to back. They looked wrinkled, as if they belonged to an elephant, and the skin was around the thickness of flatbread. The ears protruded from the sides of his head, which was moderately sized, and I was at a loss as to how he kept his balance.

'Welcome to the humble haven of the panotii. Please hand over your tickets.' He extended his arm towards us, opening his hands.

We looked around. 'What tickets?'

'The tickets that you used to be able to sense and access our sanctuary. Obviously, you have them, because otherwise you won't be able to see the sanctuary.'

We looked at each other. Obviously, none of us had any tickets.

'Um, what do these tickets look like?' Percy asked. 'Because I don't think we have any.'

The panotiii frowned. 'You must have–' His eyes widened. 'Of course! You're carrying the jailor! You're from our patron!'

'Ah, wonderful,' Holly sighed. 'Now there's a whole species us James's command.'

The panotii frowned. 'James?' His eyes widened. 'James Smith! He went incognito with you? That's too bad. We thought you were his awakeners.' He licked his lips. 'Well, he must have sent you for something… Come in! Enter our humble haven!'

The panotii scrambled back into the door, and we were about to follow, when, with a ear-splitting moan, the gates flew open, giving us a full view of the place.

' _Humble_ haven,' Connor repeated.

 _Quite_. The floors were made with shining silvern stones, and the cottages we saw here and there were made of a red-brown, rich wood, and the roofs seemed to be made of golden fibres. But beyond that, everything had been modernised. Tall, white buildings towered the area, their glass windows glittering as they reflected the sunlight. A small park lay to the left of the buildings, and little panotii were swinging on swings and seesawing on seesaws.

But the most spectacular sight was the one building in the centre of it all, like a thin pyramid, glowing with glittering gems gilded with emerald and sapphire embellishments. We were too far away to see the ground, but we could imagine the crowd. We saw armed panotii through the several windows, but at the top, the pyramid got plainer, with less splashes of colour. It was still quite dazzling, but was duller. At the top there was what seemed to be an altar, and there hung various silver statues and a white hot fire in the centre.

I realised everybody else was going in. Some people have no taste in art. I followed them. We were following the panotii from earlier. Apparently I had missed a few words spoken between ourselves while I was admiring the building.

'Where are we going?' I whispered to Butler.

'Uh, like Eumolpus said. To their leader.'

'Naturally.' I said. 'Perhaps they are in the golden building? It seems the most likely.'

As per my expectations, we neared the golden spire. Eumolpus pressed some buttons on the wall, and the walls degraded stone by stone, until a large rectangular entrance developed in front us. By large I mean two Butlers could pass at the same time. Yes, it was quite fancy.

Our entrance was greeted with a plush red carpet, as if they were expecting us. But our pride at such a greeting vanished when we stepped off the red carpet midway and walked off to our right. We walked on to a fancy looking lift of some sort. It was a glass (diamond?) sphere that could fit around twenty people and was encased with golden veins.

Eumolpus turned to us. 'You are about to meet the leader of all the panotii, the most honoured saviour of our race, the revered king Gordius. I will not accompany you to his greatness. You must meet him alone.'

The panotii stepped aside for us to get in the lift, and pressed a button. With a lurch, we were lifted upwards, and we saw the ground sinking as we got closer to the ceiling. Soon, we had gone through the ceiling, and were travelling through a dark tunnel, and we couldn't see where we were going.

'Well, that was dramatic,' was all I said.

* * *

 **And that's it. Thanks for reading! Please review!**


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